Understanding Patients' Needs In Order To Simplify Life With Diabetes

Lack of proper information, motivational obstacles and behavioral skill limitations are the most influential factors that prevent people with diabetes from adhering to self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) as recommended by their health care providers.

That is why a patient-focused approach in diabetes therapy is of pivotal importance to improve compliance and treatment outcomes. This was the overall consensus shared by leading experts in the field of diabetes care who attended the "Understanding the patients' needs" media roundtable organized by Bayer HealthCare on the occasion of the 46th Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in Stockholm, Sweden.

Among the speakers were Professor Oliver Schnell from the Diabetes Research Group at the Helmholtz Center in Munich/Germany, Professor Louis Monnier from the Laboratoire de Nutrition Humaine Institut Universitaire de Recherche Clinique in Montpellier/France, and diabetes nurse Magdalena Annersten Gershater from the Department of Endocrinology at University Hospital in Malmö/Sweden. They provided insights into common barriers to the self-monitoring of blood glucose and underlined why taking the personal situation and individual patients' needs into account is a prerequisite for managing diabetes successfully.

Testing with a purpose making SMBG worthwhile

Performing SMBG for all types of diabetes treatment approaches is widely recommended for achieving proper glucose control and avoiding late complications. But only recently, individual patient conditions have been identified as additional factors which may influence adherence to SMBG and thus have to be taken into account by health care providers and educators. "Diabetes therapy needs to focus on the individual patient," said Professor Schnell. The optimal intensity and frequency of SMBG protocols depend on a variety of factors such as the type of diabetes, chosen therapy options, individually set target ranges for the long-term marker HbA1c (also called A1c level) indicating the average blood glucose level over a period of weeks or months as well as pre- and postprandial results.

Said Professor Schnell, "International guidelines and standardized recommendations are helpful tools to further implement SMBG as an efficacious strategy, but need to be complemented by treatment approaches tailored to patients' needs by addressing their specific educational, behavioral and clinical requirements." In addition, innovative blood glucose meters offering meal-marker functions, integrated software and different levels of personalization support patients even further by ensuring simple, individualized diabetes management. They allow knowledge to be translated into concrete action such as the adjustment of meal planning, exercise, or insulin dosing.

Enhancing the understanding of barriers to SMBG