Comparación del tratamiento con infusión subcutánea continua de insulina frente a la terapia con múltiples dosis de insulina con calculador de bolus en pacientes con diabetes tipo 1

Biopolymeric nanocarrier: an auspicious system for oral delivery of insulin

Subcutaneous administration of insulin has been practiced for the clinical supervision of diabetes pathogenesis but it is often ineffective to imitate the glucose homeostasis and is always invasive. Therefore, it causes patient discomfort and infection of local tissue. These issues lead to finding an alternative route for insulin delivery that could be effective, promising, and non-invasive. However, delivery of insulin orally is the most suitable route but the rapid breakdown of insulin by the gastrointestinal enzymes becomes a major barrier to this method. Therefore, nanocarriers (which guard insulin against degradation and facilitate its uptake) are preferred for oral insulin delivery. Among various categories of nanocarriers, bio-polymeric nanocarriers draw special attention owing to their hydrophilic, non-toxic, and biodegradable nature. This review provides a detailed overview of insulin-loaded biopolymer-based nanocarriers, which give future direction in the optimization and development of a clinically functional formulation for their effective and safe delivery.

Novel strategies to oral delivery of insulin: Current progress of nanocarriers for diabetes management

Diabetes mellitus is one of the most serious public health problems in the world. Repeated daily injections of subcutaneous insulin is the standard treatment for patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus; however, subcutaneous insulin injections can potentially cause local discomfort, patient noncompliance, hypoglycemia, failure to regulate glucose homeostasis, infections, and fat deposits at the injection sites. In recent years, numerous attempts have been made to produce safe and efficient nanoparticles for oral insulin delivery. Oral administration is considered the most effective alternative route to insulin injection, but it is accompanied by several challenges related to enzymatic proteolysis, digestive breakdown, and absorption barriers. A number of natural and synthetic polymeric, lipid-based, and inorganic nanoparticles have been investigated for use. Although improvements have recently been made in potential oral insulin delivery systems, these require further investigation before clinical trials are conducted. In this review, new approaches to oral insulin delivery for diabetes treatment are discussed, including polymeric, lipid-based, and inorganic nanoparticles, as well as the clinical trials performed for this purpose.

Reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the new fear of hypoglycemia scale: FH-15

Objective

This study aimed to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the Fear of Hypoglycemia scale with 15 items (FH-15).

Methods

After obtaining the original author's authorization, the English version of the FH-15 scale was translated, back translated, and culturally debugged to obtain the Chinese version of FH-15. A convenient sampling method was used to extract patients with type 2 diabetes from four tertiary hospitals in Tianjin. A total of 408 patients with type 2 diabetes were investigated in the hospital to test the reliability and validity of Chinese version FH-15 scale.

Results

The content validity index of the scale was 0.92, and the content validity index of each item was 0.8-1.0. The exploratory factor analysis extracted three common factors (fear, avoidance, and interference), which contained 15 items, and the cumulative variance contribution rate was 71.245%. The confirmatory factor analysis results showed that the model fit was better at 1.981 χ ²/df, GFI = 0.901, CGI = 0.962, TLI = 0.952, and RMSEA = 0.070. The cut-off value for the total hypoglycemia fear scale was 30.5. The Cronbach's α coefficient of the three dimensions of the scale was 0.918, the Cronbach's α coefficient of each dimension is 0.876-0.916, the test-retest reliability was 0.903, and the test-retest reliability of each factor was 0.733-0.930.

Conclusion

The Chinese version of the FH-15 scale can be considered reliable and valid. The item expression is concise, clear, and easy to understand. It is suitable for clinical practice as an initial screening tool to identify and evaluate the severity of fear of hypoglycemia in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Health-related quality of life in diabetes mellitus and its social, demographic and clinical determinants: A nationwide cross-sectional survey

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

To investigate health-related quality of life in a representative sample of adults with diabetes mellitus in Spain, as well as its clinical and sociodemographic determinants.

BACKGROUND

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease causing considerable morbidity and mortality worldwide, resulting in an impaired quality of life in affected people.

DESIGN

A nationwide cross-sectional study, based on an online survey and carried out between February-March 2016, was performed on diabetic subjects recruited through diabetic patients' organisations.

METHODS

A validated Spanish-language version of the self-administered Diabetes Quality of Life questionnaire was used, with 0 being the worst and 100 the best QoL level. Determinant factors of health-related quality of life were assessed with the aid of multivariate analysis to control for confounding factors.

RESULTS

The responses provided by 456 patients (52.4% being women) revealed an overall mean score of 66.4 ± 13.3. Social/vocational worries and diabetes-related worries were the dimensions with the highest (74.3 ± 20.1) and lowest (61.1 ± 20.6) scores, respectively. Younger age, female gender, having no studies and poor glycaemic control were all independent determinants for an impaired overall health-related quality of life, with most of these factors having a higher impact than the dimensions negative impact of therapy on daily life, satisfaction with therapy and diabetes-related worries. Married (or equivalent) subjects had better scores in the diabetes-related worries dimension. The perception of health-related quality of life progressively worsens as glycaemic control deteriorates and with an increased number of disease complications. Most of the associations did not vary significantly with the type of diabetes mellitus.

CONCLUSION

Overall health-related quality of life perception in the Spanish diabetic population is moderate and depends on several sociodemographic factors. Adequate glycaemic control to avoid disease complications improves perception.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

The results can help health professionals to develop strategies to promote diabetic patient self-care, in order to improve the metabolic control of the disease and avoid its complications, as a therapeutic goal towards an improvement in health-related quality of life perception.