Study: Only a minority of patients in the U.S. with type 1 diabetes achieve treatment goals

A new study has shown that only a minority of patients in the U.S. with type 1 diabetes (T1D) achieve target levels of hemoglobin A1c, a measure of blood glucose management over time. In fact HbA1c levels have increased in young adults and teens in 2016-2018 compared to 2010-2012 according to the study published in Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics (DTT), a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.

In the article entitled "State of Type 1 Diabetes Management and Outcomes from the T1D Exchange in 2016-2018," Nicole Foster and Roy Beck, MD, PhD, Jaeb Center for Health Research (Tampa, FL), and Satish Garg, MD, University of Colorado Denver (Aurora) for the T1D Exchange Clinic, and a team of researchers present the first 5-year study of outcomes from the T1D Exchange registry from the Helmsley Charitable Trust. In addition to reporting on HbA1c levels, the researchers discussed utilization of diabetes technology and various aspects of diabetes management, metabolic control, and acute complication of T1D.

"Despite the availability of newer insulin analogs and increased use of insulin pumps and CGMs in the U.S., the mean A1c levels for patients with type 1 diabetes have increased in the past 5 years and only 1 out 5 patients reach ADA target A1c levels," says DTT Editor-in-Chief and co-author of the article, Satish Garg, MD, Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Colorado Denver (Aurora). "Above all these data represent 30,000 patients followed at the leading centers in the U.S."