Assessment of self-monitoring of blood glucose in type 1 diabetic children and adolescents and its influence on quality of life: practice and perspective

Background Self-monitoring blood glucose (SMBG) includes an assessment of the capillary glucose concentration as well as the interpretation of and responding to the readings. The purpose of this study was to assess patients' compliance to self-monitoring blood glucose (SMBG), identify factors and barriers that affect it, and to correlate performance of SMBG to blood glucose monitoring and patients' quality of life. Three hundred and thirty children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes were subjected to the following: (1) an interview pre-structured questionnaire which included personal, medical history, and details about SMBG; (2) Questionnaire about Quality of Life Index (Diabetes Version-III) by Ferrans and Powers for patients aging 10-16 years; and (3) glycated hemoglobin (HA1C) measurement. Results About 67% of the patients assessed their blood glucose 3 times per day, while 0.57% assessed blood glucose 7 times. The most influential factors affecting compliance of SMBG were the cost of strips and glucometers, the fear of pain and injection, psychological frustration, lack of availability of information to deal with high reading, and the absence of motivation for doing regular SMBG. The more the frequency of SMBG daily, the better the HA1C of the patients (p< 0.01). Adolescent patients aged 10-16 years who have more frequent SMBG and those with less HA1C have significant better quality of life (p< 0.05). Conclusions More frequent SMBG practice was associated with better glycemic control and better quality of life. Patients' compliance is influenced by several factors which affect their frequency of SMBG.