Self-management of blood sugar glucose, diet and control of daily activities are crucial in the overall management of diabetes mellitus (DM). Patients are seldom requested to conduct a diary of their glucose measurements and meals. In today’s era of smartphone widespread use, it has been suggested that using mobile technology for self-blood glucose measurement together with the ability to automatically capture other factors important to control DM, may be an important method for enhancing disease self-management.*
The DARIO™ device and mobile application, is a self-blood glucose monitoring device using smartphone interface. The mobile application accumulates data of measurements, insulin intake, meals and carbohydrate consumption and physical activity. Users are also members of an electronic DM support group.
Methods: A retrospective analysis of the DARIO™ database was used to target users that have been using the device for a period of 6 months. Users were stratified according to the mean number of times they measured their glucose level per day. Statistical analysis was performed to look at glucose levels change, hyper, hypoglycemia events and adherence.
Results: 45 observed patients reported 6 months of consecutive use over the years 2015-2016. Significant reduction in hyperglycemia events (Glu >300mg/dl) was observed between the group measuring 4-5 times per day than the group measuring 1-2 times per day. No significant differences were observed between groups with respect to hypoglycemia events. The group measuring 5 times per day showed a dramatic decrease in insulin use.
Conclusions: The use of mobile technologies for self-blood glucose monitoring, has the potential to increase one's awareness to the disease,effect empowerment levels and better self-management of the disease. With regard to clinical outcomes, web-based interventions are able to reduce blood glucose levels and hospitalization rates.