Self monitoring of blood glucose in type 2 diabetes

doi:10.1136/bmj.39538.469421.80

BMJ 2008;336:1139-1140 (24 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.39538.469421.80 (published 17 April 2008)

Editorials

Self monitoring of blood glucose in type 2 diabetes

May not be clinically beneficial or cost effective and may reducequality of life

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

In the accompanying papers, O’Kane and colleagues reporta randomised controlled trial of blood glucose self monitoringin people with newly diagnosed diabetes (ESMON trial) and Simonand colleagues report a cost effectiveness analysis that ranalongside the previously published blood glucose self monitoringin type 2 diabetes (DiGEM) trial.¹ ² ³

The question of whether people with type 2 diabetes who do notuse insulin should monitor their own blood glucose has beenthe subject of some lively exchanges in the BMJ for more than10 years. In 1997, Marilyn Gallichan wrote, "The inappropriateuse of self monitoring of glucose is wasteful of NHS resourcesand can cause psychological harm. There is no convincing evidencethat self monitoring improves glycaemic control, nor that bloodtesting is necessarily better than urine testing."⁴ These challengingobservations were disputed by correspondents who suggested thatself monitoring might help people with diabetes improve bloodglucose . . . [Full text of this article]

Martin Gulliford, professor of public health

¹ Department of Public Health Sciences, King’s College London, London SE1 3QD

martin.gulliford@kcl.ac.uk

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Rapid Responses:

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Very old news: David Kerr
bmj.com, 18 Apr 2008 [Full text]
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NICE quick reference and self testing: Owen A Thurtle
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