Diabetes Care, Vol 8, Issue 5 456-460, Copyright © 1985 by American Diabetes Association
Compliance to self-monitoring of blood glucose: a marked-item technique compared with self-report
RR Wing, LH Epstein, MP Nowalk, N Scott and R Koeske
This study compared subjects' self-reported rates of compliance to
self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) with an objective measure based on
a "marked-item" technique. We followed 25 obese patients with type II
diabetes who were participating in a behavorial weight control program and
monitoring their blood glucose with Chemstrips bG (Bio-Dynamics, Inc.,
Indianapolis, Indiana). Subjects' self-report significantly overestimated
actual compliance as assessed by the marked-item technique. Moreover, the
self-report measure failed to identify 35-45% of the noncompliant patients.
Compliance decreased steadily over the course of the 37-wk program.
Accuracy of SMBG was less problematic than compliance; 85% of patients were
able to read Chemstrips bG within 20% of actual blood sugar, and the
average blood sugar reading obtained from 2 mo of SMBG correlated highly (r
= 0.78, P less than 0.01) with HbA1. Our data suggest that objective
measures such as the marked-item technique described in this article should
be used to assess compliance to SMBG and behavioral strategies to improve
compliance should be developed.