New study on reasons for low rates of blood glucose monitoring in type 2 diabetes in China

Researchers in China who assessed self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) behavior among nearly 19,000 patients with type 2 diabetes treated with oral medications reported very low SMBG rates both before and after the patients began treatment with basal insulin, although the data showed an increase in mean SMBG frequency after 6 months and the percentage of patients who never monitored their blood glucose decreased. The study, which also confirmed that patients who performed SMBG more frequently tended to have lower HBA1c levels, is published in Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics (DTT).

Yingying Luo, Yuqian Linong Ji, Peking University People's Hospital, Beijing; Yuqian Bao, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Affiliated Sixth People's Hospital, Shanghai; and Puhong Zhang, Dongshan Zhu, Xian Li, Jiachao, and Heng Zhang, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing, representing the ORBIT Study Group, coauthored the article entitled "Self-Monitoring of Blood Glucose in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Before and After Initiating Basal Insulin Treatment in China."

The researchers conducted a prospective analysis using ORBIT study data, comparing SMBG frequency, HbA1c control, and hypoglycemia rates among patients with HbA1c > 7% on oral diabetic agents at the initiation of the study. They collected follow-up measurements at 3 months and 6 months after the patients began using basal insulin.

"Introduction of insulin is usually delayed in real-life in subjects with uncontrolled type 2 diabetes. This study by Luo et al highlights the improvements achieved in glucose control by introduction of any basal insulin," says DTT Editor-in-Chief Satish Garg, MD, Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Colorado Denver (Aurora).