Prevalence and Associated Factors of Effective Self-monitoring of Blood Glucose Frequency in Community-living People with Glycemic Management

Abstract

Background The latest epidemiological data show that the prevalence of diabetes (diagnosed by the WHO diagnostic criteria) in Chinese population was 11.2% in 2020. Diabetes may induce many serious complications, and poor glycemic control will greatly impair the quality of life of people with glycemic management, so self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) is particularly important. Objective To explore the prevalence and associated factors of effective frequency of SMBG in community-living people with glycemic management. Methods Convenience sampling was used to select individuals from Shantou communities who received online or offline glycemic management from primacy hospitals from August 2019 to August 2020 to attend a survey using a questionnaire consisting of three parts, namely demographic information, the Chinese version of the Brief IMB-SMBG Instrument, and the frequency of SMBG. Effective SMBG frequency was defined as measuring fasting blood glucose or 2-hour postprandial blood glucose 2 to 4 times per week, and by which participants were divided into effective and ineffective SMBG groups. Multivariate Logistic regression was used to analyze the influencing factors of effective SMBG frequency. Results Two thousand cases attended the survey, and 1 636 (81.80%) of them who handed in responsive questionnaires were finally included for analysis, including 403 (24.63%) with effective SMBG frequency and 1 233 (75.37%) with ineffective SMBG frequency. Effective and SMBG ineffective frequency groups had significant difference in the average total score of 〔 (211.76±38.36) vs (166.33±40.24) 〕 (t=19.901, P<0.01) . Two groups also had significant differences in sex ratio, distribution of education attainment, occupation type, and monthly income, prevalence of glycemic control through pharmaceutical treatment, drinking, complications, awareness of glycosylated hemoglobin and SMBG frequency, having a blood glucose monitor, catching up the blood glucose measurement missed due to forgetting, getting good access to blood glucose test strips, and massaging fingers to promote blood flow (P<0.05) . Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that occupation type, glycemic control through pharmaceutical treatment, good access to blood glucose test strips, catching up the blood glucose measurement missed due to forgetting and massaging fingers to promote blood flow were associated with effective SMBG frequency (P<0.05) . Conclusion The rate of effective SMBG frequency in community-living people with glycemic management needs to be improved further. To achieve this, it is suggested that education on SMBG skills should be provided for this group.

Keywords

• diabetes mellitus|prediabetic state|blood glucose self-monitoring|glycemic control|root cause analysis