Background: Professional societies have recommended against use of self-monitoring blood glucose (SMBG) in non-insulin-treated type 2 diabetes (NITT2D) to control blood sugar levels, but patients are still monitoring.
Objective: To understand patients' motivation to monitor their blood sugar, and whether they would stop if their physician suggested it.
Design: Cross-sectional in-person and electronic survey conducted between 2018 and 2020.
Participants: Adults with type 2 diabetes not using insulin who self-monitor their blood sugar.
Main measures: The survey included questions about frequency and reason for using SMBG, and the impact of SMBG on quality of life and worry. It also asked, "If your doctor said you could stop checking your blood sugar, would you?" We categorized patients based on whether they would stop. To identify the characteristics independently associated with desire to stop SMBG, we performed a logistic regression using backward stepwise selection.
Key results: We received 458 responses. The common reasons for using SMBG included the doctor wanted the patient to check (67%), desire to see the number (65%), and desire to see if their medications were working (61%). Forty-eight percent of respondents stated that using SMBG reduced their worry about their diabetes and 61% said it increased their quality of life. Fifty percent would stop using SMBG if given permission. In the regression model, respondents who said that they check their blood sugar levels because "I was told to" were more likely to want to stop (AOR: 1.69, 95%CI: 1.11, 2.58). Those that used SMBG due to habit and to understand their diabetes better had lower odds of wanting to stop (AOR: 0.33, 95%CI: 0.18-0.62; AOR: 0.60, 95%CI: 0.39-0.93, respectively).
Conclusions: Primary care physicians should discuss patients' reasons for using SMBG and offer them the option of discontinuing.
© 2021. Society of General Internal Medicine.