title: Perceived diabetes status is independently associated with glucose monitoring behaviour among type 2 diabetes mellitus patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate if patients' perceptions of their diabetes status is related to blood glucose self-monitoring (SMBG) behaviour, independent of self-reported disease severity.
  
  
  METHODS
  The setting of this study was a cross-sectional study among 1561 patients, 18 years or older, who filled at least two prescriptions for any glucose lowering drug between March 2002 and 2003 in the Netherlands. Using a 30-item self-administered questionnaire, data on self-monitoring behaviour (frequency of test strip use and objective of self-monitoring), perceived diabetes status and disease severity were gathered. Type 1 diabetes mellitus patients were excluded. We used logistic regression to calculate odds ratios (OR) and their 95% confidence intervals (CI).
  
  
  RESULTS
  About 54% of the patients (n=841) returned evaluable questionnaires. After exclusion of 97 type 1 diabetes mellitus patients, 744 type 2 diabetes mellitus patients were included. Practising SMBG was more common among patients who rated their diabetes status as poorly or moderately controlled compared to those who rated it (very) well-controlled (OR 1.93; 95% CI: 1.20-3.12). A better perceived diabetes status was more likely in those who performed SMBG infrequently compared to those who performed SMBG frequently (p-value for trend=0.001). Self-reported factors of disease severity and personalized objectives did not affect these associations considerably.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Among type 2 diabetes mellitus patients, SMBG behaviour is associated with patients' perceptions of diabetes status, irrespective of the self-reported disease severity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacotherapy, Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, P.O. Box 80082, 3508 TB Utrecht, The Netherlands. o.h.klungel@pharm.uu.nl
authors.forename: Olaf H
authors.initials: OH
authors.lastname: Klungel
authors.forename: Michiel J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Storimans
authors.forename: Annemieke
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Floor-Schreudering
authors.forename: Herre
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Talsma
authors.forename: Guy E H M
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Rutten
authors.forename: Cornelis J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: de Blaey
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001786:Blood Glucose; D015190:Blood Glucose Self-Monitoring; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands; D012720:Severity of Illness Index
chemical_list: D001786:Blood Glucose