Feasibility of Adjustment of Insulin Dose by Insulin-Requiring Type II Diabetic Patients

Type II (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes accounts for most of the diabetes morbidity and expense, yet no systematic study of the effects of intensification of treatment by such patients who require insulin treatment has been conducted. Therefore, patients were recruited from our diabetes clinics, and by random assignment, experimental and control groups were created (n = 26 and 27, respectively) that were not different at 0 mo regarding 20 demographic, physiological, and treatment variables. Experimental patients practiced an algorithm for adjustment of insulin dosage based on daily prebreakfast capillary blood glucose (CBG) measurements and any symptomatic hypoglycemia. At 2-, 4-, and 6-mo visits, records of CBG measurements were available to the physicians (n = 7), who changed insulin dosages of both groups ad libitum. Feasibility of the experimental treatment is evidenced by study completion by 87% of enrollers, monitoring on 88% of days, accuracy of CBG recording (recorded as percentage of memory meter value, 100.8), weight gain not exceeding that of control subjects, practice of treatment algorithm to effect changes in insulin dosage, modest increase in frequency of mild insulin reactions, and a decrease of glycosylated hemoglobin into the normal range.