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Service dogs can detect hypoglycemia, alert companion
NEW ORLEANS — Service dogs trained to identify hypoglycemia in their human companions can correctly identify the condition and sound a timely alert, according to study findings presented at the American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions.
Although reliability of canine warnings is lower than that of continuous glucose monitor (CGM) alerts, patients with type 1 diabetes report satisfaction and confidence in their service dog’s ability to detect hypoglycemia, Evan A. Los, MD, a fellow in pediatric endocrinology at Doernbecher Children's Hospital in Portland, Oregon, said.
Evan A. Los
“Trained dogs often alert a human companion to otherwise unknown hypoglycemia; however, most alerts occurred when the patient did not actually have hypoglycemia. Continuous glucose monitoring often detects hypoglycemia before a trained dog by a clinically significant margin,” Los told Endocrine Today.
According to Los, “patient-reported reliability painted a much more favorable assessment of the dog’s abilities than we actually found in the study. This has the potential to lead to over-reliance on a poorly performing diagnostic tool that has significant financial cost and time investment.”
Los and colleagues compared reliability of hypoglycemia alerts using fingerstick measures and blinded CGM for eight patients with type 1 diabetes aged 4 to 48 years who lived with service dog companions for the primary purpose of detecting hypoglycemia. Hypoglycemia was defined as blood glucose level below 70 mg/dL.
The service dogs — five Labrador retriever/lab mixes, one St. Bernard, one golden doodle and a collie, according to Los — scored high in patient satisfaction (8.9 of 10 on a Likert scale) and patient confidence (7.9 of 10) in their ability to alert to hypoglycemia.
Dogs alerted the patients 3.2 (95% CI, 2-5.2) times more often during hypoglycemia than during euglycemia. Among a total of 45 hypoglycemic events during the study period, dogs appropriately alerted in a timely manner (10 minutes before to 30 minutes after onset) in 36% of events. When both dog and CGM data indicated a hypoglycemic event (n = 30), CGM would have alerted the patient a median of 22 minutes earlier than the dog.
During a presentation of study results, Los said the dogs had been trained by different methods and may have been conditioned to alert at different glucose levels than the 70 mg/dL limit chosen by the researchers.
“This study helps equip clinicians to provide an answer to the question: ‘What do you think about diabetes alert dogs?’” Los said. “This is not the final word on whether trained dogs might be helpful for patients with diabetes, and there may be other benefits not assessed by this study, such as having a positive partner in the daily management of a chronic disease.” – by Jill Rollet
Reference:
Los EA, et al. 76-OR. Presented at: American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions; June 10-14, 2016; New Orleans.
Disclosure: Los reports no relevant financial disclosures.