Glucometer Control Solution Underused by Patients, Physicians

Glucometer control solution is underused among physicians, patients, and pharmacists, according to a recent study presented at the 2014 American Association of Diabetes Educators meeting.

Control solution uses a specific amount of glucose and testing strips to evaluate the performance of old glucometers, and to test new glucometers before use.
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For the study, Katherine O’Neal, PharmD, and Jeremy Johnson, PharmD, from the University of Oklahoma in Tulsa visited 25 pharmacies in Tulsa to determine how much control solution was in stock.

They then conducted phone interviews with 60 diabetes patients from the University of Oklahoma in Tulsa’s electronic medical records (and various pharmacists) followed by a web survey including 32 physicians.

They discovered that only 23% of diabetes patients reported using control solution in their survey.  Additionally, 56% of physicians and 14% of pharmacists regularly recommended for patients to use control solution.

Researchers noted that many physicians did not recommend control solution because they believed it was not necessary with newer glucometers.

They also suggested that the type of diabetes may play a role in control solution use: the survey showed a 38% use in patients with type 1 diabetes and a 15% use in patients with type 2 diabetes.

Control solution may become critical as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) creates stricter criteria on glucometers—currently, the FDA criteria requires 99% of meter results to fall + or – 15% of true value based on the International Organization for Standardization guidelines.

The complete study was presented at the 2014 American Association of Diabetes Educators meeting.

-Michelle Canales

Reference:

O'Neal KS, Johnson JL. An evaluation of the barriers to patient use of glucometer control solutions: a survey of patients, pharmacists, and providers. Paper presented at: American Association of Diabetes Educators 2014 Annual Meeting; August 6-9, 2014; Orlando, FL. https://s3.amazonaws.com/v3-app_crowdc/assets/events/mWoExTXqUv/activities/W13C.original.1404242784.pdf. Accessed August 11, 2014.