How often patients on insulin therapy measure postprandial glycemia and modify insulin doses accordantly? From an on-line survey in insulin-treated diabetes patients in Spain

Abstract Introduction Controlling postprandial glycemia (PPG) is important to achieve optimal glycemic control, but few studies have evaluated how often is measured and evaluated. Objectives To evaluate how often patients on insulin therapy measure PPG and modify insulin doses accordantly. As secondary objectives, we evaluated the factors conditioning elevated PPG and associated issues. Material and methods Cross-sectional observational study based on a web-based survey from an unselected sample of adult insulin-treated patients. A p-value of  Results 1251 patients (68% women, 38.9 ± 13 years [mean ± SD], body mass index (BMI) 24.2 ± 4.2 kg/m2, diabetes duration 17.4 ± 12.8 years, insulin dose 38 ± 18 IU) participated, 1104 with autoinmmune disease (AD) and 147 with non-autoinmmune diabetes (NAD). 59% of patients had HbA1c ≤ 7%, 92.7% of patients with AD and 55.8% with NAD were attended by specialists (p  Conclusions Patients with AD determine PPG more frequently. Diabetes type, follow-up setting, number of injections and CGMS use were the most important predictive factors for PPG measurement. Diabetes education programs should address how to best monitor PPG and appropriate corrective actions.