Skip to main content
  • More from ADA
    • Diabetes
    • Clinical Diabetes
    • Diabetes Spectrum
    • ADA Standards of Medical Care
    • ADA Scientific Sessions Abstracts
    • BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care
  • Subscribe
  • Log in
  • Log out
  • My Cart
  • Follow ada on Twitter
  • RSS
  • Visit ada on Facebook
Diabetes Care

Advanced Search

Main menu

  • Home
  • Current
    • Current Issue
    • Online Ahead of Print
    • Special Article Collections
    • ADA Standards of Medical Care
  • Browse
    • By Topic
    • Issue Archive
    • Saved Searches
    • Special Article Collections
    • ADA Standards of Medical Care
  • Info
    • About the Journal
    • About the Editors
    • ADA Journal Policies
    • Instructions for Authors
    • Guidance for Reviewers
  • Reprints/Reuse
  • Advertising
  • Subscriptions
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Institutional Subscriptions and Site Licenses
    • Access Institutional Usage Reports
    • Purchase Single Issues
  • Alerts
    • E­mail Alerts
    • RSS Feeds
  • Podcasts
    • Diabetes Core Update
    • Special Podcast Series: Therapeutic Inertia
    • Special Podcast Series: Influenza Podcasts
    • Special Podcast Series: SGLT2 Inhibitors
    • Special Podcast Series: COVID-19
  • Submit
    • Submit a Manuscript
    • Journal Policies
    • Instructions for Authors
    • ADA Peer Review
  • More from ADA
    • Diabetes
    • Clinical Diabetes
    • Diabetes Spectrum
    • ADA Standards of Medical Care
    • ADA Scientific Sessions Abstracts
    • BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care

User menu

  • Subscribe
  • Log in
  • Log out
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Diabetes Care
  • Home
  • Current
    • Current Issue
    • Online Ahead of Print
    • Special Article Collections
    • ADA Standards of Medical Care
  • Browse
    • By Topic
    • Issue Archive
    • Saved Searches
    • Special Article Collections
    • ADA Standards of Medical Care
  • Info
    • About the Journal
    • About the Editors
    • ADA Journal Policies
    • Instructions for Authors
    • Guidance for Reviewers
  • Reprints/Reuse
  • Advertising
  • Subscriptions
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Institutional Subscriptions and Site Licenses
    • Access Institutional Usage Reports
    • Purchase Single Issues
  • Alerts
    • E­mail Alerts
    • RSS Feeds
  • Podcasts
    • Diabetes Core Update
    • Special Podcast Series: Therapeutic Inertia
    • Special Podcast Series: Influenza Podcasts
    • Special Podcast Series: SGLT2 Inhibitors
    • Special Podcast Series: COVID-19
  • Submit
    • Submit a Manuscript
    • Journal Policies
    • Instructions for Authors
    • ADA Peer Review
Online Letters: Observations

Diabetic Alert Dogs: A Preliminary Survey of Current Users

  1. Linda Gonder-Frederick, PHD1,
  2. Pam Rice, BA2,
  3. Dan Warren2,
  4. Karen Vajda, BA1 and
  5. Jaclyn Shepard, PsyD1
  1. From the 1Behavioral Medicine Center, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia; and
  2. 2Service Dogs by Warren Retrievers, Inc., Culpeper, Virginia
  1. Corresponding author: Linda Gonder-Frederick, lag3g{at}virginia.edu.
Diabetes Care 2013 Apr; 36(4): e47-e47. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc12-1998
PreviousNext
  • Article
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

Methods for monitoring blood glucose (BG) levels play many essential roles in diabetes management, and one of the most important is alerting individuals to the occurrence of hypoglycemia. A growing number of individuals with diabetes are turning to the use of Diabetic Alert Dogs (DADs) for hypoglycemia detection, despite their high cost. Testimonials from DAD owners and trainers have reported in the media that the accuracy of trained canine alerts matches that of BG monitoring technology (1,2) and described other benefits attributed to DADs, including improvements in glycemic control and quality of life (QoL). However, with the exception of one abstract from a case study (3) there is no scientific evidence that confirms the ability of DADs to detect hypoglycemia accurately or to improve clinical outcomes and QoL. We have recently conducted an exploratory study based on a survey of DAD owners from a Virginia-based nonprofit organization, Service Dogs by Warren Retrievers, Inc. (SDWR).

To gain information about their clients’ experiences, SDWR conducted an online survey, which was completed by 36 DAD owners—23 parents of children and 13 adults with type 1 diabetes (means/standard deviations of child/adult age 8.4/3.1 and 36.4/14.1, respectively). Data were deidentified by SDWR then sent to the University of Virginia for analysis, and the study was approved as exempt by the University of Virginia Institutional Review Board. Survey items inquired about the accuracy of DAD alerts, as well as frequency of hypoglycemia, diabetes control, and QoL prior to and since DAD placement.

DAD accuracy

Respondents were asked how frequently they experienced hypoglycemia with no corresponding DAD alert in the past month. Over one-third (36.1%) reported no occurrences without a DAD alert in this time period, 27.8% reported fewer than one event per week, and 36.1% reported more than one per week. Nearly all respondents (91.7%) reported that DAD alerts occurred at BG levels between 3.3–3.9 mmol/L.

Clinical outcomes

Respondents reported significant decreases in the frequency of severe (P = 0.039) and moderate (P = 0.02) hypoglycemia since DAD placement, as well as glycosylated hemoglobin levels (P = 0.001).

Psychosocial outcomes

The majority of respondents reported decreased worry about hypoglycemia (61.1%) and hyperglycemia (61.1%), improved QoL (75%), and the ability to participate in physical activities (75%).

A number of significant methodological limitations should be considered when interpreting these findings, including the small number of respondents, as well as the subjective and retrospective nature of the survey data. Obviously, prospective studies of larger numbers of DAD owners, with objective measures to assess DAD accuracy and clinical outcomes are needed. Nonetheless, these preliminary findings provide some encouraging evidence about the potential benefits of DAD use. Although DAD owners did not all report perfect accuracy, this is not surprising given that BG monitoring technology is also not perfectly accurate at BG levels <75 mg/dL or 4.2 mmol/L (4). On the basis of these positive exploratory findings, more research into the use of DADs in diabetes management appears warranted, including scientifically rigorous studies comparing the accuracy of DAD alerts to that of BG monitoring devices (5).

Acknowledgments

D.W. is the CEO of Service Dogs by Warren Retrievers, Inc. (SDWR). P.R. is a client of SDWR. No other potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article were reported.

L.G.-F. supervised data analysis and interpretation and manuscript preparation and editing. P.R. and D.W. researched data and edited the manuscript. K.V. analyzed data, contributed to data interpretation, and edited the manuscript. J.S. contributed to data interpretation and edited the manuscript. L.G.-F. is the guarantor of this work and, as such, had full access to all the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.

The authors thank Dallas Ducar and Jean Pak, University of Virginia, for editorial assistance.

  • © 2013 by the American Diabetes Association.

Readers may use this article as long as the work is properly cited, the use is educational and not for profit, and the work is not altered. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ for details.

References

  1. 1.↵
    1. Spake A
    . Could a dog save your life? No one knows for sure how they do it, but a growing number of canine companions are helping people with diabetes avoid dangerous hypoglycemia. Diabetes Forecast 2008;61:40–47
    OpenUrlPubMed
  2. 2.↵
    Taylor RF. 5-year-old’s pup can detect diabetes ups and downs [Article online], 3 April 2012. The Winchester Star. Available from http://www.10tv.com/content/stories/apexchange/2012/04/03/va–diabetes-dog.html. Accessed 27 September 2012.
  3. 3.↵
    1. Hardin DS,
    2. Hillman D,
    3. Cattat J
    . Hypoglycemia alert dogs—innovative assistance for people with type 1 diabetes. Diabetes 2012;61(Suppl. 1):A99
    OpenUrlFREE Full Text
  4. 4.↵
    1. Freckmann G,
    2. Baumstark A,
    3. Jendrike N,
    4. et al
    . System accuracy evaluation of 27 blood glucose monitoring systems according to DIN EN ISO 15197. Diabetes Technol Ther 2010;12:221–231
    OpenUrlCrossRefPubMedWeb of Science
  5. 5.↵
    1. Tonyushkina K,
    2. Nichols JH
    . Glucose meters: a review of technical challenges to obtaining accurate results. J Diabetes Sci Tech 2009;3:971–980
    OpenUrl
View Abstract
PreviousNext
Back to top
Diabetes Care: 36 (4)

In this Issue

April 2013, 36(4)
  • Table of Contents
  • About the Cover
  • Index by Author
Sign up to receive current issue alerts
View Selected Citations (0)
Print
Download PDF
Article Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about Diabetes Care.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Diabetic Alert Dogs: A Preliminary Survey of Current Users
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from Diabetes Care
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the Diabetes Care web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
Diabetic Alert Dogs: A Preliminary Survey of Current Users
Linda Gonder-Frederick, Pam Rice, Dan Warren, Karen Vajda, Jaclyn Shepard
Diabetes Care Apr 2013, 36 (4) e47; DOI: 10.2337/dc12-1998

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Add to Selected Citations
Share

Diabetic Alert Dogs: A Preliminary Survey of Current Users
Linda Gonder-Frederick, Pam Rice, Dan Warren, Karen Vajda, Jaclyn Shepard
Diabetes Care Apr 2013, 36 (4) e47; DOI: 10.2337/dc12-1998
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Jump to section

  • Article
    • DAD accuracy
    • Clinical outcomes
    • Psychosocial outcomes
    • Acknowledgments
    • References
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF

Related Articles

Cited By...

More in this TOC Section

  • Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor Sunitinib Allows Insulin Independence in Long-standing Type 1 Diabetes
  • FGF23 in Type 2 Diabetic Patients: Relationship With Bone Metabolism and Vascular Disease
  • Diabetic Charcot Neuroarthropathy of the Hand: Clinical Course, Diagnosis, and Treatment Options
Show more Online Letters: Observations

Similar Articles

Navigate

  • Current Issue
  • Standards of Care Guidelines
  • Online Ahead of Print
  • Archives
  • Submit
  • Subscribe
  • Email Alerts
  • RSS Feeds

More Information

  • About the Journal
  • Instructions for Authors
  • Journal Policies
  • Reprints and Permissions
  • Advertising
  • Privacy Policy: ADA Journals
  • Copyright Notice/Public Access Policy
  • Contact Us

Other ADA Resources

  • Diabetes
  • Clinical Diabetes
  • Diabetes Spectrum
  • Scientific Sessions Abstracts
  • Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes
  • BMJ Open - Diabetes Research & Care
  • Professional Books
  • Diabetes Forecast

 

  • DiabetesJournals.org
  • Diabetes Core Update
  • ADA's DiabetesPro
  • ADA Member Directory
  • Diabetes.org

© 2021 by the American Diabetes Association. Diabetes Care Print ISSN: 0149-5992, Online ISSN: 1935-5548.