Is diabetes patients’ knowledge of laboratory tests for monitoring blood glucose levels associated with better glycaemic control?

Abstract

Aim: To determine if there is any difference in indices of glycaemic control between type-2 diabetes patients who knew the laboratory tests for monitoring blood glucose and their peers who did not know. Methods: Eighty-nine type-2 diabetes patients were studied after an overnight fast. The patients’ bio-data, blood pressure, anthropometric indices and baseline biochemical parameters and glycated haemoglobin A_1c (HbA_1c) were measured. After a breakfast of stewed boiled rice, a 2-hour postprandial blood glucose was measured and a questionnaire administered. Results: The patients’ mean ± SD HbA_1c level was 8.6 ± 2.4% and none of the patients knew about HbA_1c test for monitoring glycaemic control. Interestingly, patients who knew about fasting blood glucose test had significantly lower HbA_1c values than their counterparts who did not know (8.1 ± 2.2 vs. 9.1 ± 2.5%, p < 0.05). Conclusion: Diabetes self-management education incorporating laboratory-based information may assist to prevent poor glycaemic control in developing countries with increasing reports of hyperglycaemic emergencies.

• Developing country
• diabetes education
• diabetes mellitus
• diabetes self-management
• glycaemic control
• hyperglycaemic emergencies

Acknowledgements

We thank the nurses and resident doctors of the Medical Outpatient Clinic (MOP) and staff of Chemical Pathology Laboratory of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, Nnewi, Nigeria, for their clinical and technical assistance respectively. The study was supported, in part, with Professor Chidum Ezenwaka’s research grant from the University of the West Indies, St Augustine Campus, Trinidad and Tobago.