Complexity of managing Type 2 diabetes is currently underestimated, reveals survey

Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly and Company announced results from a poll conducted with almost 800 physicians treating people with Type 2 Diabetes (T2D), in Japan, China, India and South Korea. 360 respondents were from India. As per the the online survey, 79 per cent of the physicians surveyed believed that the complexity of managing T2D is currently underestimated.

However, the physicians also opined that despite these complexities, high quality, structured patient education can help to improve health outcomes and significantly improve quality of life in people with T2D. 90 per cent of physicians polled agreed that both healthcare practitioners and patients could gain from additional medical information and patient support materials.

The survey highlighted the importance of managing cardiovascular risk in T2D. 94 per cent of total respondents and 92 per cent of the Indian physicians who polled claimed that the management of cardiovascular risk influenced their decision when prescribing an oral anti-hyperglycaemic treatment.

Half of the total physicians and 59 per cent of Indian respondents surveyed ranked ‘number of doses per day’ as the factor that influenced them the most when prescribing an oral anti-hyperglycaemic agent, in addition to the management of blood glucose. 39 per cent of Indian physicians surveyed ranked risk factors like obesity, smoking and hypertension as the most important challenge and 46 per cent ranked drug interactions as the least important challenge while managing T2D.

“More than 60 per cent of the world’s diabetes population lives in Asia and physicians treating T2D in this region acknowledge that this is a complex condition,” said Klaus Dugi, Corporate Senior Vice President Medicine, Boehringer Ingelheim. “Despite the challenges T2D can present in the face of rising prevalence, results from this survey show that healthcare professionals in Asia are evaluating the full spectrum of available treatments, dosing regimens, risk factors and co-morbidities to achieve the best possible health outcomes for their patients.”

EP News Bureau – Mumbai