Continuous Glucose Monitoring Reduces Hypoglycemia in Older Adults With Type 1 Diabetes

The results of the Wireless Innovation for Seniors with Diabetes Mellitus clinical trial published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that older adults with type 1 diabetes who use continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices can significantly lower the occurrence of hypoglycemia and severe hypoglycemic events while also reducing hemoglobin A1c, reports Medical Xpress . The trial involved 203 men and women older than 60 at 22 clinical centers, with about half receiving insulin via an insulin pump and the other half getting multiple daily injections of insulin. Half were randomly assigned to a group using a CGM device, and the other half to a control group using the standard finger-stick method with test strips for blood glucose monitoring. The amount of time glucose levels were in a hypoglycemia range was shortened from 73 minutes per day at the start of the study to 39 minutes per day in the group using CGM over six months. In the controls, the average minutes per day in hypoglycemia was 68 at the start of the study and 70 minutes over the study period. CGM users were much less likely to have a severe hypoglycemic event compared to controls. Moreover, regular CGM use increased the amount of time in target range by more than two hours daily.