Table 4.
Most important characteristics when choosing an injectable treatment for type 2 diabetes
| Characteristics of injectable treatmenta | Frequency (%) of respondents indicating that each treatment characteristic is important | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| UK patients (N = 251) | US patients (N = 253) | Total sample (N = 504) | |
| Confidence that you are administering the correct dose | 155 (61.8%) | 145 (57.3%) | 300 (59.5%) |
| Ease of selecting or giving yourself the correct dose of medication | 131 (52.2%) | 137 (54.2%) | 268 (53.2%) |
| Overall ease of using the injection device | 102 (40.6%) | 137 (54.2%) | 239 (47.4%) |
| Frequency of injections (e.g., daily vs. weekly) | 108 (43.0%) | 115 (45.5%) | 223 (44.2%) |
| Ease of bringing the injection device with you when it is necessary to inject away from home | 93 (37.1%) | 97 (38.3%) | 190 (37.7%) |
| Ease of storing the injection device and medication | 88 (35.1%) | 89 (35.2%) | 177 (35.1%) |
| Ease of preparing the injection device for each injection (some medications require extra steps for preparing the device before injecting) | 84 (33.5%) | 89 (35.2%) | 173 (34.3%) |
| Size of the needle | 76 (30.3%) | 84 (33.2%) | 160 (31.7%) |
| Dose timing (some medications need to be taken with meals or at the same time every day while other medications are more flexible) | 77 (30.7%) | 67 (26.5%) | 144 (28.6%) |
| The need to refrigerate (some medications need to be kept cool and others do not) | 45 (17.9%) | 60 (23.7%) | 105 (20.8%) |
| Size of the injection device (i.e., the injection pen) | 44 (17.5%) | 43 (17.0%) | 87 (17.3%) |
| Dose titration (with some medications like insulin, the dose may be increased or decreased as needed based on your blood sugar level) | 45 (17.9%) | 40 (15.8%) | 85 (16.9%) |
| Single-use vs. multi-use (some injection devices are reusable, whereas others are used once before being disposed) | 34 (13.5%) | 50 (19.8%) | 84 (16.7%) |
| Dose escalation (some medications start at a lower dose and then have one or more increases to get to a higher dose) | 46 (18.3%) | 33 (13.0%) | 79 (15.7%) |
| Handling the needle (some devices require you to attach the needle for each injection while other devices come with a pre-attached needle) | 38 (15.1%) | 36 (14.2%) | 74 (14.7%) |
| Connectivity to your phone or another electronic device (some injection devices transmit information about your injections to an online app) | 58 (23.1%) | 12 (4.7%) | 70 (13.9%) |
| Time it takes to prepare and inject each dose of medication | 31 (12.4%) | 31 (12.3%) | 62 (12.3%) |
aParticipants were responding to the following item: “When choosing an injectable treatment for T2D, you and your doctor would consider the effectiveness and safety of the possible treatments. There are also many other factors you might consider. Some of these characteristics of injectable treatments are listed below. Please select the five characteristics below that are most important to you.” The 17 characteristics of injectable treatment listed in this table were presented as options. Item text and bolding are shown as originally presented in the survey