Insulin initiation in patients with type 2 diabetes is often delayed, but access to a diabetes nurse may help—insights from Norwegian general practice

<b>Objective</b>: We opted to study how support staff operational capacity and diabetes competences may impact the timeliness of basal insulin-initiation in general practice patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). <b>Design/Setting/Outcomes:</b> This was an observational and retrospective study on Norwegian primary care patients with T2D included from the ROSA4-dataset. Exposures were (1) support staff size, (2) staff size relative to number of GPs, (3) clinic access to a diabetes nurse and (4) share of staff with diabetes course (1 and 2 both relate to staff operational capacity, whereas 3 and 4 are both indicatory of staff diabetes competences). Outcomes were ‘timely basal insulin-initiation’ (primary) and ‘attainment of HbA_1c&lt;7%’ after insulin start-up (secondary). Associations were analyzed using multiple linear regression, and directed acyclic graphs guided statistical adjustments. <b>Subjects:</b> Insulin naïve patients with ‘timely’ (<i>N</i> = 294), ‘postponed’ (<i>N</i> = 219) or ‘no need of’ (<i>N</i> = 3,781) basal insulin-initiation, respectively. <b>Results:</b> HbA_1c [median (IQR)] increased to 8.8% (IQR, 8.0, 10.2) prior to basal insulin-initiation, which reduced HbA_1c to 7.3 (6.8–8.1) % by which only 35% of the subjects reached HbA_1c &lt;7%. Adjusted risk of ‘timely basal insulin-initiation’ was more than twofold higher if access to a diabetes nurse (OR = 2.40, [95%CI, 1.68, 3.43]), but related only vaguely to staff size (OR = 1.01, [95%CI, 1.00, 1.03]). No other staff factors related significantly to neither the primary nor the secondary outcome. <b>Conclusion:</b> In Norwegian general practice, insulin initiation in people with T2D may be affected by therapeutic inertia but access to a diabetes nurse may help facilitating more timely insulin start-up. In patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) cared for by their general practice physician (GP), insulin therapy was susceptible to therapeutic inertia.In Norwegian general practice, chance of timely basal insulin-initiation was found more than two-fold higher if the GP had access to a diabetes nurse.In contrast, the timeliness of basal insulin-initiation in general practice patients with T2D seemed unaffected by share of support staff with diabetes course and by factors indicatory of support staff overall operational capacity.In Norwegian general practice, a diabetes nurse seems to offer unique clinical benefits to the care of insulin treated patients with T2D. In patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) cared for by their general practice physician (GP), insulin therapy was susceptible to therapeutic inertia. In Norwegian general practice, chance of timely basal insulin-initiation was found more than two-fold higher if the GP had access to a diabetes nurse. In contrast, the timeliness of basal insulin-initiation in general practice patients with T2D seemed unaffected by share of support staff with diabetes course and by factors indicatory of support staff overall operational capacity. In Norwegian general practice, a diabetes nurse seems to offer unique clinical benefits to the care of insulin treated patients with T2D.