A Pan-European and Canadian prospective survey to evaluate patient satisfaction with the SoloSTAR insulin injection device in type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

Objective: This study evaluated patient satisfaction with SoloSTAR® (sanofi-aventis), a prefilled insulin pen device for injection of insulin glargine or insulin glulisine.

Methods: This was a 6-8-week multicenter (n = 652), observational, prospective Pan-European and Canadian registry study in patients with diabetes mellitus (n = 6542) who recently switched to or started treatment with insulin glargine and/or insulin glulisine using SoloSTAR or were insulin naïve. At the baseline visit, patients were asked to evaluate their satisfaction with their previous device, if applicable. After 6-8 weeks of SoloSTAR use, patients were asked to rate their satisfaction.

Results: Overall, 6481 patients (mean age 54 years, 48.7% male, 72% type 2 diabetes) were analyzed in this study. Of these, 4995 (77.1%) patients had used insulin before the study and 1641 (32.9%) and 3395 (68.0%) patients had previously used prefilled and/or reusable pens, respectively. During the study, SoloSTAR was used to administer insulin glargine and/or insulin glulisine by 97.3% and 36.0% of patients, respectively (both: 27.0%). Most patients rated SoloSTAR as "excellent/good" for ease of use (97.9%), learning to use (98.3%), selecting the dose (97.6%), and reading the dose (95.1%). Most patients rated ease of use (88.4%) and injecting a dose (84.5%) with SoloSTAR as "much easier/easier" versus their previous pen. Overall, 98% planned to continue using SoloSTAR. No safety concerns were reported.

Conclusion: This European and Canadian survey shows that SoloSTAR was well accepted in this large patient population. Most patients preferred SoloSTAR to their previous pen and planned to continue SoloSTAR use.