Many Americans with type 2 diabetes may be getting unnecessary blood sugar tests and, in some cases, needless changes in medication, a new study suggests.
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Researchers found that in a large group of U.S. adults with well-controlled type 2 diabetes, 60 percent were undergoing too many hemoglobin A1C tests.
The test, which gauges a person's average blood sugar control over the past three months, is routinely used to diagnose and monitor type 2 diabetes. But guidelines say it should be done only once or twice a year if a patient has been showing good blood sugar control, according to the study.
All of the patients in the current study fell into that category. Yet nearly 55 percent underwent A1C tests three or four times per year. Another 6 percent had at least five tests per year.
"I think part of the problem is that we often think more testing is better," said lead researcher Dr. Rozalina McCoy, a professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minn.
But, as in other areas of medicine, that is not necessarily true in diabetes care, McCoy explained. If someone is unlikely to benefit from frequent A1C tests, she said, the downsides - like extra costs and inconvenience - can't really be justified.
Plus, there are potential risks to patients' health, McCoy pointed out. In this study, frequent A1C tests raised the odds that patients would be started on additional medications to control their blood sugar.
The worry, McCoy said, is that those more-intense regimens would boost patients' risk of dangerously low blood sugar.
The study's findings are based on insurance claims made between 2001 and 2013 for more than 31,000 type 2 diabetes patients age 18 and older.
All of the adults in the study had A1C levels that were consistently below 7 percent within the previous two years - which meant their blood sugar was under good control. ■
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