Home blood glucose monitoring in type 1 diabetes mellitus.
OBJECTIVE
To determine which of two simplified blood glucose monitoring schemes promotes better metabolic control in type 1 diabetic patients during 12 months of participation in educational groups.


METHODS
A crossover clinical trial involving 21 patients divided into two groups was conducted. They were submitted to a two monitoring schemes: 2 alternate daily preprandial measurements and 2 alternate daily pre-and postprandial measurements. The effectiveness of the schemes was evaluated based on HbA1c. Variations in mean HbA1c were analyzed by Friedman test.


RESULTS
The groups were homogenous in terms of sociodemographic and clinical variables (p>0.05). Mean HbA1c levels ranged from 8.48 (+/-1.00) to 7.37 (+/-0.99) over time in Group A and from 9.89 (+/-0.86) to 8.34 (+/-1.06) in Group B. The analysis of the HbA1c showed a significant reduction in the first and last 6 months and over the 12 months of the study in two groups (p<0.05). The preprandial scheme demonstrated the largest number and highest percentage of significant drops in HbA1c.


CONCLUSIONS
The two monitoring improved the metabolic control and the preprandial scheme was more effective.
Grossi
Sonia Aurora Alves
SA
Escola de Enfermagem, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil. sogrossi@usp.br
Lottenberg
Simão Augusto
SA
Lottenberg
Ana Maria
AM
Della Manna
Thaís
T
Kuperman
Hilton
H
D015190:Blood Glucose Self-Monitoring / Q000379:methods; D002648:Child; D018592:Cross-Over Studies; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male