Self-Monitoring of Blood Glucose in Type 2 Diabetes – little if any benefit for most

The NHS National Institute for Health Research has published a SIGNAL article highlighting a systematic review of 24 studies (including 5,454 people) investigating the value of self-monitoring of blood glucose by people with type 2 diabetes who are not treated with insulin.

The NIHR SIGNAL concludes that “patients with type 2 diabetes who monitor their blood glucose themselves may see small, short-term improvements in blood sugar control. This is not enough to be clinically important or outweigh the costs and personal inconvenience of long-term self-testing.”