Frequency of Blood Glucose Monitoring in Relation to Glycemic Control in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes

Clinical Care/Education/Nutrition

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland

Diabetes Care 2001 Jun; 24(6): 979-982. https://doi.org/10.2337/diacare.24.6.979

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Figure 1 —
Distribution of patients with type 2 diabetes according to HbA_1c decile. Each decile contains 10% of the population of all patients. The mean ± SD HbA_1c value for nondiabetic subjects was 5.27 ± 0.43%. A: Percentage of patients in each decile of HbA_1c who were treated with insulin, oral agents, or diet alone. B: Percentage of patients in each decile of HbA_1c who self-monitored their blood glucose. Dashed lines are linear regression lines. R² = 0.81, one or more tests per week; R² = 0.23, one or more tests per day; R² = 0.03, two or more tests per day.
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Figure 2 —
Percentage of patients with type 2 diabetes in quintiles of the HbA_1c distribution who self-monitor their blood glucose, according to diabetes therapy. The mean ± SD HbA_1c for nondiabetic subjects is 5.27 ± 0.43%. In logistic regression, there was no relationship between HbA_1c value and self-monitoring in any diabetes therapy group (P > 0.5). A: Insulin-treated patients. B: Oral agent–treated patients. C: Diet-treated patients. ▪, Self-monitoring test one or more times per week; ○, self-monitoring test one or more times per day. ▴, self-monitoring test two or more times per day.

Table 1 —

HbA_1c values and frequency of blood glucose self-monitoring by patients with type 2 diabetes, according to diabetes treatment

	All patients	Insulin	Oral agents	Diet alone
Patient distribution (%)	100.0	27.3	45.5	27.2
Mean HbA_1c value*	7.64	8.29	8.04	6.37
Proportion with HbA_1c ≥8 (%)	37.1	51.4	42.2	14.9
Blood glucose self-monitoring (%)
Never or <1 time per month	58.9	28.7	65.2	79.7
1–3 times per month	8.5	11.1	9.2	4.6
1–6 times per week	18.0	21.1	21.0	9.2
≥1 time per day	14.6	39.1	4.6	6.5

*
↵* The upper limit of normal for HbA_1c in the assay system is 6.1%, defined as the mean + 2 SDs (5.27 + 0.86%) for the group of people with fasting plasma glucose <110 mg/dl and 2-h postchallenge glucose <140 mg/dl.