Practice of Self-Monitoring of Blood Glucose Among Type 2 Diabetic Patients: A Comparative Study at Three Hospitals in Ghana
Abstract
Self-Monitoring of Blood Glucose is an important tool for assessing and improving the quality of diabetes management. Experts recommend active teaching and practice of Self-Monitoring of Blood Glucose to achieve glycaemic goals as part of a patient-centred self-management program. The aim of the study was to assess the level of practice of self-monitoring of blood glucose among type 2 diabetes clients at three major hospitals in Kumasi, the second largest city in Ghana. After fully explaining the purpose and procedures in the study to the subjects and receiving their consent, a structured questionnaire was used to interview and extract data from the participants. The study population included a total of 238 type 2 diabetes patients (60, 117 and 61; from Kumasi South Hospital, Manhyia Hospital and KNUST Hospital respectively). The results showed that in general, only 68 (28.6%) of the subjects practice self-monitoring whiles 170 (71.4%) do not practice. KNUST hospital had the highest proportion of practice (37.7%) followed by Kumasi South hospital (28.3%) whiles Manhyia hospital had the least (23.9%). The patients were not nervous or scared of practice of SMBG. Religious reasons were also not a barrier to practice of SMBG. There is low practice of SMBG among diabetes patients attending clinic at the three hospitals in the study. There appear to be several reasons that affect the decision to not use SMBGs for testing, including the patients’ lack of awareness concerning the need for glucose testing and not knowing how to do self-monitoring.Key words: Self-monitoring of blood glucose, Diabetes mellitus, Glycaemic control, Ghana
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