Psychological problems related to capillary blood glucose testing and insulin injection among diabetes patients

Abstract

Abstract Objective This review is aimed at explaining the psychological problems related to capillary blood glucose (CBG) testing and insulin injection, as well as recommending essential strategies to solve the fear thereof. Methods Databases, including PubMed, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Scopus, and Google Scholar, were searched to extract the relevant articles. Initially, the terms used to retrieve related studies were “fear of blood glucose monitoring”, “anxiety capillary blood glucose testing and insulin injection”, “psychological problems on blood glucose monitoring and insulin injection”, “diabetes management”, and “diabetes mellitus”. Results Results showed that the psychological problems related to CBG testing and insulin injection were associated with the stress and depression experienced during diabetes self-monitoring of blood glucose. This psychological issue has its impacts such as nonadherence to medication as well as a lack of self-discipline in terms of CBG testing and insulin injection. Inadequate information, inappropriate perception, and pain/discomfort during pricking of fingers were the main reasons for the psychological issues in CBG testing and self-injection of insulin. Conclusions The expected benefits of this review include the explanation of the issues related to the psychological problems in CBG testing and insulin injection among type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients. This review article also provides the recommendations on providing counseling and empowering the patients on CBG monitoring and insulin injection. Moreover, family members should provide psychological support to reduce fear, anxiety, and distress arising from CBG testing and insulin injection.