5 chad system: support the argument
I found a blog titled Healthcare Triage: Type 2 Diabetes and Daily Blood Sugar Monitoring by Aaron Carroll. This blog posting says that studies have shown that regular blood sugar testing is unnecessary for type 2 diabetics who don’t use insulin to control their blood sugar levels (Carroll, 2019). It goes on to say that even based on these studies about 50% of this population still continue to perform regular blood sugar checks throughout each day (Carroll, 2019). The studies referenced in the blog had three different groups they tested; some never checked their sugar levels, others checked once a day, and the third checked once a day and then took interventions based on advice from the people who ran the study (Carroll, 2019). This concluded after one year. The results from this indicated that there was an insignificant difference in the hemoglobin A1C levels for the three different groups and showed that routine checking made no difference in long term blood sugar levels (Carroll, 2019). The study was done in conjunction with the Choosing Wisely campaign that promoting dialogue to stop use of services that are deemed to not be of any benefit (Platt, Thompson, Lin, Basu, Linden, & Fendrick, 2018). Their study consisted of 12 clinical trials involving more than 3000 patients (Platt et al., 2018). It showed no statistical difference in this population regarding blood sugar levels with people who routinely checked blood sugar levels and those who didn’t (Platt et al., 2018). I had a very hard time finding any other articles that further support this study and the outcome and the comments section on the original site was closed so I was not able to read or post to the comments.
If I were to comment I would say; This topic seems very interesting and if the information proves to be correct, then this has the potential to save lots of diabetic’s money and decrease stress with regard to the cost and challenges that come with routine blood sugar testing. In order for this to be implemented into the general population a large education campaign would be needed to ensure that the correct population group, type 2 diabetics who control blood sugar levels without insulin, would be targeted. If this teaching wasn’t clear than other diabetic groups could become confused and stop checking their levels and could cause an increase in hyperglycemic episodes. One issue that I have with the study is that the group that was checking their levels only did so once a day. I would be curious if more frequent checking, such as before meals and at bedtime, could result in different levels as sugar levels fluctuate throughout the day and daily checks just don’t seem enough.
As members of the healthcare field we need to be careful with use of social media, but it can be used as a tool to improve patient outcomes. One reference in the book to use of social media is to use it as a mean to detect early signs of disease outbreaks and be able to implement interventions and be able to monitor health behaviors (Milstead, 2016). I feel that social media could also be used as a tool to provide education to the communities that we serve and direct this education to different things that are current within that population such as flu education during flu season, or sunscreen education during the summer months. The biggest ethical consideration with social media is abiding by HIPAA laws and not providing any sort of patient specific information.
References
Carroll, Aaron. (2019). Healthcare Triage: Type 2 Diabetes and Daily Blood Sugar Monitoring.
Retrieved from https://theincidentaleconomist.com/wordpress/healthcare-
triage-type-2-diabetes-and-daily-blood-sugar-monitoring/
Milstead, J.A.. (2016) Health policy and politics: A nurses guide (5th Edition).
Washington, DC.: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Platt, K. D., Thompson, A. N., Lin, P., Basu, T., Linden, A., Fendrick, A. M. (2018).
Assessment of self-monitoring of blood glucose in individuals with type 2 diabetes
not using insulin. JAMA Intern Med. 179(2):269–272. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.
2018.5700
