Abstract
Objective: To investigate the influence of self-monitoring of glucose on the glycaemic control in Sudanese diabetic subjects.
Subjects and methods: A group of 193 consecutive type 2 and type I diabetic subjects (95 men, 98 women) were studied. In 104 subjects with type 2 diabetes fasting blood glucose was measured using a glucose meter and blood was obtained for serum glucose measurement in the laboratory. In the remaining 89 diabetic subjects random blood glucose was measured using the same glucose meter and a whole blood sample was drawn for laboratory assessment of HbA1c. Data on self-monitoring and other clinical and personal characteristics were recorded.
Results: More than 75% of either type I and type 2 diabetic patients never self-monitored blood or urine glucose. In type 2 diabetic subjects self-monitoring of blood or urine glucose was not related to glycaemic control. In type I diabetic subjects, however, self-monitoring of blood glucose was significantly associated with better glycaemic control, as assessed by HbA1c (P = 0.02) and blood glucose at clinic visits (P < 0.0001), and similar associations were found for urine glucose self-monitoring (P = 0.04 and 0.02) respectively. Neither glycaemic control nor glucose self-monitoring was associated with education level.
Conclusions: Self-monitoring of blood glucose was not found to be associated to better glycaemic control in Sudanese subjects with type 2 diabetes. In contrast, self-monitoring of both blood and urine glucose was significantly associated with glycaemic control in subjects with type I diabetes. Self-monitoring of urine glucose could be useful where measurement of blood glucose is not available or affordable.