Building Competency in Diabetes Education THE ESSENTIALS

TREATMENT MODALITIES: PHARMACOLOGICAL THERAPIES | 6-66

Figure 4. Physiologic insulin replacement

Reprinted with permission from Owens et al (137)

Types of insulin Educators may wish to use handouts to enhance the individual with diabetes’ understanding of the different insulin regimens and facilitate discussion about the various insulin options. Refer to the 2018 Guidelines website (guidelines.diabetes.ca) for a list of available patient resources. Table 13 outlines the various types of insulin and their action times. The action times are estimates only, and depend on the individual, the injection site and the type of insulin used. There can be up to a 30% variation in daily absorption from the same site in the same person, with less variability noted in the newer insulin analogues (68).

Table 13. Types of insulin in Canada

TYPES OF INSULIN

Insulin type (trade name)

Onset

Peak

Duration

Bolus (pre-prandial or mealtime) insulins Rapid-acting insulin analogues (clear) • Insulin aspart (NovoRapid ® /Trurapi ® ) • Insulin glulisine (Apidra ® ) • Insulin lispro (Humalog ® /Admelog) U-100 • Insulin lispro (Humalog ®) U-200

9 - 20 min 10 - 15 min 10 - 15 min 10 - 15 min

1 – 1.5 h 1 – 1.5 h

3 – 5 h 3.5 – 5 h 3 – 4.75 h 3 - 4.75 h

1 – 2 h 1 - 2 h