This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Few patients, caregivers of children with diabetes review device data
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Only a small fraction of patients with type 1 diabetes and caregivers of children with the disease routinely download and review data from their diabetes devices, according to research in Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics.
In a cross-sectional study conducted at an academic diabetes clinic, researchers found that adults and the children of caregivers who routinely downloaded and reviewed data from one or more diabetes management devices had a lower HbA1c on average when compared with adults and the children of caregivers who did not routinely download data.
Jenise C. Wong, MD, PhD, of the Madison Clinic for Pediatric Diabetes at the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues analyzed data from 155 adults (mean age, 35 years; 50% men; 66% white) and 185 caregivers of children with type 1 diabetes (mean age of child, 12 years; 54% boys; 69% white) who completed a cross-sectional survey. Within the cohort, 73% used an insulin pump and 32% used a continuous glucose monitor. Researchers considered participants routine downloaders if they downloaded device information four or more times in the past year, and they considered participants routine reviewers if they reviewed their data most of the time they downloaded it from their devices. Researchers used logistic regression to identify factors associated with being a routine reviewer.
Researchers found that 31% of adults and 56% of caregivers reported ever downloading data from one or more devices; 20% of adults and 40% of caregivers were considered routine downloaders; 12% of adults and 27% of caregivers were routine reviewers.
Researchers also found that adult routine reviewers had an average HbA1c of 7.2% vs. nonroutine reviewers who had an average HbA1c of 8.1% (P = .03); the children of routine reviewers had an average HbA1c of 7.8% compared with the children of nonroutine reviewers, who had an average HbA1c of 8.6% (P = .001).
Researchers found that older adults and those with longer disease duration were more likely to routinely review device data: the OR of being a routine reviewer of one or more devices for every 10-year increase in age was 1.5 (95% CI, 1.1-2.1) and 1.7 for every 10 years since diabetes diagnosis (95% CI, 1.2-2.4).
The researchers said clinicians should make an effort to help patients better understand and use their data.
“Improvements in device hardware and software could facilitate the data review process, making data collection, visualization and interpretation easier in the future,” the researchers wrote. – by Regina Schaffer
Disclosure: One of the researchers reports consulting for and owning shares in DexCom and Tandem Diabetes. Wong and the other researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts