Effect of Insulin-Induced Lipodystrophy on Glycemic Control among Children and Adolescents with Diabetes in Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Background. Lipodystrophy is one of the clinical complications of insulin injection that affects insulin absorption and leads to poor glycemic control. Objective. To assess insulin-induced lipodystrophy and glycemic control. Methods. A cross sectional study was done on 176 diabetic children and adolescents who inject insulin for a minimum of one year. First, anthropometric and clinical characteristics of the patients were recorded in questionnaire, and then observation and palpation techniques were used in assessing lipodystrophy. Result. Out of the total 176 participants, 103 (58.5%) had insulin-induced lipodystrophy, of them 100 (97.1%) had lipohypertrophy and 3 (2.9%) had lipoatrophy. Being younger, failure to rotate the injection site every week and multiple reuse of insulin syringe had significant influence in development of insulin-induced lipohypertrophy. Lipohypertrophy in turn was associated with the use of higher dose of insulin and nonoptimal glycemic control. Conclusion. Findings of this study revealed that in spite of using recombinant human insulin, the magnitude of the lipohypertrophy still remained high. Therefore, a routine workup of insulin-injecting patients for such complication is necessary, especially in the individuals who have a nonoptimal glycemic control.