Doctor and senior woman wearing facemasks during coronavirus and flu outbreak. Virus protection. COVID-2019..

Up to 18% of diabetes patients say they would forfeit up to a decade of healthy life just to avoid treatments, researchers say. In addition, as many as half said they would give up eight to 10 years of life in perfect health to avoid living with diabetes complications.

The findings could have stunning implications for long-term care workers. Diabetes is one of the most prevalent and fastest growing conditions of American long-term care residents.

Diabetes patients typically must take several medications daily, which can extend to include daily insulin shots, as well. The shots are the top aversion among study subjects, according to researchers from the University of Chicago, who issued a report in this month’s issue of Diabetes Care.

“We need to find better, more convenient ways to treat chronic illness,” said study author Elbert Huang, MD, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago. The study included face-to-face preference interviews with 701 adults.