3 out of 4 people with diabetes don’t check their blood glucose before driving

By Dr Kate Marsh

20 Oct 2016

Three-quarters of Australian drivers with type 1 diabetes, including many with impaired hypoglycemic awareness, don’t consistently check their blood glucose levels before driving, according to a recent survey.

Current guidelines recommend that individuals with insulin-treated diabetes monitor their blood glucose levels before driving and every two hours during long-distance driving. But the survey of 539 Australian adults with type 1 diabetes found that only one in four (24%) checked their blood glucose levels consistently before driving while nearly a third (31%) rarely or never checked. Similar findings were seen for consistently monitoring after driving for 2 hours or more.

Those who reported not being advised by their healthcare professionals to monitor before driving were almost five times less likely to consistently check their blood glucose levels before driving, highlighting the importance of education around driving and diabetes by healthcare professionals.

Related story: Education paramount around fitness to drive in diabetes: expert

Perhaps not surprisingly, not always carrying a blood glucose meter when driving and having less concern over the safety of driving with low blood glucose levels were associated with less consistent monitoring prior to driving. Those who had a shorter commute to work were also less likely to monitor before they drive.

“What stands out is not so much the total number of people who don’t monitor, but the subgroup with either impaired awareness of hypoglycemia or a recent episode of severe hypoglycaemia who don’t monitor consistently before they drive,” leading author Dr Steven Trawley, research fellow at the Australian Centre for Behavioural Research in Diabetes told the limbic.

“It’s fair to say that these individuals should be monitoring each time they get into a vehicle, he said. However their study found that of those who reported not consistently monitoring before driving, 25% had impaired awareness of hypoglycaemia (IAH) and 15% reported a history of severe hypoglycemia (SH) in the past 6 months.

“This [a history of SH] is a key risk factor for motor vehicle crashes”,  Dr Trawley added.

Participants were also asked about their reasons for not monitoring, and the most common responses were that they preferred to eat to avoid low blood glucose levels when driving, and that monitoring in a car was inconvenient and fiddly.

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The findings provide the first Australian data on self-reported self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) before and during driving in adults with type 1 and are part of the yourSAY (Selfmanagement And You): Glucose Monitoring study, a national cross-sectional online survey of attitudes and barriers to SMBG. The survey included questions about demographic, clinical, SMBG and driving characteristics, along with attitudes towards, and reasons for not conducting, driving-related SMBG.

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