A nursing educational intervention helped by One Touch UltraSmart™ improves monitoring and glycated haemoglobin levels in type I diabetic children

Objectives.  To improve the monitoring and control of glycated haemoglobin in insulin-dependent children. This article describes an educational intervention for this purpose where One Touch UltraSmart™ Software was used to manage diabetes. The results showed that this intervention helped to reduce the levels of blood glucose and glycated haemoglobin to less than 7%. Background.  Various research studies have been performed on the effective control of glycated haemoglobin values in diabetic children by means of technological devices. However, none of this research has evaluated the impact of an educational intervention in conjunction with the use of monitoring instruments such as One Touch UltraSmart. Design.  We present an 18-month longitudinal, analytical and observational study of 37 type 1 diabetic patients, 9–16 years of age. For each patient, initial and final values of glycated haemoglobin and the number of blood glucose controls were recorded. Methodology.  For the purposes of our study seven educational workshops, attended by diabetic children and their parents, were conducted. In addition, participants were asked to complete a brief questionnaire so that information could be gathered regarding the eating and exercise habits of the patients. Results.  This educational intervention using One Touch UltraSmart led to a statistically significant average reduction of glycated haemoglobin. Conclusions.  Our research showed that the use of One Touch UltraSmart in the context of an educational intervention raised the awareness of the diabetic children and thus helped them to effectively control their disease and to fully understand the necessity of having good dietary and exercise habits. Relevance to clinical practice.  It can be concluded that the educational intervention led to a significant improvement in the dietary habits of these patients and also helped them to exercise regularly, all of which has a positive impact on their health.