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People with type 2 diabetes may be testing blood sugar too much

MICHIGAN: People with type 2 diabetes might be testing their blood sugar levels too much, a study says.
Researchers at the University of Michigan say that roughly 14 percent of people with diabetes, but who don’t require insulin, are spending hundreds of dollars per year and using thousands of test strips to check something that is not necessary. New research published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine, based on insurance information for more than 370,000 people with Type 2 diabetes but who did not take insulin, suggests that these tests are unnecessary.
One of my patients who didn’t need to be testing daily told me that her previous doctor had told her to test her sugars two or three times a day, Kevin Platt, the internal medicine resident in the Department of Internal Medicine at University of Michigan and study lead investigator, said in a press release. These data show that over-testing is quite common – and with the appropriate guidance can be reduced significantly.
About 23 percent of people in the study refilled prescriptions for test strips at least three times a year, getting 90 strips at a time. Another 43 percent of participants filled prescriptions exclusively for metformin or other medicines that don’t have a risk of hypoglycemia. Once patients established the proper dosage of medication that didn’t cause a blood sugar spike, they no longer needed daily testing.
But those two groups kept testing their blood sugar, even though they didn’t need to. The researchers say many patients needlessly test daily to see how well exercise, dieting, and their medication regimens are actually working.

M M Alam

M. M. Alam is a Pakistan-based working journalist since 1981. Karachi University faculty gold medalist Alam began his career four decades ago by writing for Dawn, Pakistan’s highest circulating English daily. He has worked for region’s leading publications, global aviation periodicals including Rotors (of USA) and vetted New York Times as permanent employee of daily Express Tribune. Alam regularly covers international aviation and defense-related events including Salon Du Bourget (France), Farnborough (United Kingdom), Dubai (UAE). Alam has reported thousands of events and interviewed hundreds of people in Pakistan, UAE, EU, UK and USA. Being Francophone Alam also coordinates with a number of French publications.