Background: Children and adolescents with diabetes may use data from continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) in management decisions and may share it in real time with others involved in their care. CGM systems from Dexcom (San Diego, CA) allow real-time sharing with up to 5 remote “Followers.” We explored associations between the presence of Follower(s), device utilization, and glycemic parameters.
Methods: We used estimated glucose values (EGVs) from a convenience sample of 25,000 CGM users of Dexcom's G5 or G6 system ages 2-24 that were uploaded between 5/1/2018 and 9/30/2018 by an app that allows for sharing. The number of Follower(s) was established on 8/10/2018. Each day with ≥1 valid EGV was counted as a day of device usage. Comparisons were made with two-sided Welch’s t-tests.
Results: Overall, 90.0% of the population used the sharing feature and had ≥1 Follower; the mean numbers of Followers for patients ages <8, 8-14, and 15-24 years were 2.73, 2.69, and 1.83, respectively. In all 3 age groups, having a Follower was associated with lower mean EGVs, more EGVs in the 70-180 mg/dL range, fewer EGVs in hypo- or hyperglycemia, and more device utilization (Table).
A. Parker: Employee; Self; Dexcom, Inc. M. Derdzinski: Employee; Self; Dexcom, Inc. S. Puhr: None. J. Welsh: Employee; Self; Dexcom, Inc. T.C. Walker: Employee; Self; Dexcom, Inc. A. Jimenez: Employee; Self; Dexcom, Inc.