Why most people on injections don’t use a pump

Among 406 adults with type 1 or type 2 diabetes on multiple daily injections and CGM surveyed in December 2025, 5% said they were highly or extremely likely to start a pump in the next twelve months.¹

This measures likelihood, not whether someone is considering a pump. In the same report, 28.8% of adults with type 1 diabetes on multiple daily injections said they were currently considering one.

65% of adults with type 1 on injections, and 53% of those with type 2, rated at least one of the following as a highly impactful reason for not using a pump:²

• the time it takes to manage
• how complicated it is to use day in and day out
• discomfort wearing it
• not wanting something attached to the body
• difficulty keeping it private

Four of those five reasons are about what it’s like to wear a pump all day, every day, not about how well it controls glucose.

Two further reasons appear near the top: satisfaction with a regimen that is already working, and cost, which is the leading reason for one segment specifically.³

People who decline a pump are sometimes described as non-adherent or resistant. The data doesn’t support that reading. These are people managing their days well who have weighed a specific trade and said no. The choice is about identity and daily life, and they’ve thought it through.

Declining a pump is a reasonable decision about the day. It leaves the night where it was. Someone taking insulin by injection has no automation during the hours they’re asleep, exactly when they’re least able to respond. Closing that gap shouldn’t mean giving up pens.

This page reports survey findings. Whether a pump, injections, or anything else suits you is a conversation for you and your clinician.