Having type 2 diabetes was itself associated with higher levels of intentional
omission of insulin injections. The beta
for this variable (0.226) was approximately twice the size of the unadjusted eta
(0.095), reflecting the fact that controlling for confounding factors (such as age
and number of daily injections) revealed a
stronger underlying association. The independent association of type 2 diabetes
with increased insulin omission may re-
flect the fact that patients with type 2 diabetes have a residual insulin response,
reducing the immediate consequences of
omitting an injection. Thus, these individuals may feel less vulnerable to the effects of skipping insulin injections they
know they should take. Interestingly,
whereas duration of diabetes was associated with the frequency of insulin injection omission, regression analysis
revealed that duration of diabetes did not
make an independent contribution to this
behavior. That is, although insulin omission may be less common among individuals with longer duration of diabetes, this
is likely a function of other factors such as
age and type of diabetes rather than of
duration per se