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Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a major health problem, with a high prevalence worldwide, including in Pakistan. Insulin is a main treatment of type 1 DM (T1D) and type 2 DM (T2D). Many challenges and complications are linked with insulin self-administration (ISA). A cross-sectional survey was conducted at a single teaching hospital in Pakistan. Study participants were adults with T1D or T2D treated with insulin who attended the hospital. Data were collected using a pretested questionnaire that determined the participants’ knowledge of DM and ISA and their attitudes towards ISA. Mann–Whitney tests and Kruskal–Wallis tests were applied to check the association between demographic characteristics and knowledge and attitude. The Spearman rho correlation test was used to check the correlation between knowledge and attitude scores. Data were analyzed by applying SPSS version 24.0. Of the 105 survey participants, 66.9% were male and 33.1% were female, with a median age of 45 years. Only 22.9% of the participants had good knowledge about DM, 50.5% had average knowledge, and 26.7% had poor knowledge. The attitude towards ISA was favorable in 30.5% of participants, but unfavorable in 69.5%. Age and duration of insulin use were significantly related to knowledge and attitude scores, and there was positive linear correlation between knowledge score and attitude score. Overall, participants had poor knowledge and unfavorable attitudes regarding DM and ISA therapy. The positive linear correlation between knowledge and attitude score suggests that if patients are knowledgeable about DM, their attitude regarding DM and ISA will also be favorable.

The safety and proper utilization of a drug depends not only on its pharmacological action, but also its interactions with other drugs and their metabolites. Therefore, a multifaceted biochemical system must be considered when prescribing any drug. The purpose of the present study is to identify potential drug–drug interactions (pDDIs) and investigate their level of severity, onset of action, mechanism of action, and incidence in the medical wards of Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Teaching Hospital, Abbottabad, Pakistan. A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted from November 2016 to January 2017 in the medical wards of a teaching hospital. A systematic random sampling technique was used to select patients from the available settings with one in every seven patients selected to provide a sample of 384 patients. A total of 388 pDDIs were identified, which comprised 86 types of drug combinations. Across all pDDIs, most were of major severity (39.9%), followed by moderate (39.6%) and minor (19.5%) severity and contraindicated (0.7%). A majority of the study participants were male (292; 76%) and the mean age of the patients was 50 years. Overall, 51.0% patients had at least one pDDI. The overall prevalence of pDDIs is very high in medical wards, and the incidence of pDDIs is primarily associated with polypharmacy and patient age.