Diabetes Care, Vol 9, Issue 3 236-243, Copyright © 1986 by American Diabetes Association

ARTICLES

Subjective symptoms, blood glucose estimation, and blood glucose concentrations in adolescents with diabetes

A Freund, SB Johnson, A Rosenbloom, B Alexander and CA Hansen

Twenty-five adolescent campers with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) completed a Symptom Rating Checklist and estimated their blood glucose (BG) immediately before having their BG assessed four times daily for 11 days. Consistent relationships between BG and symptoms were not identified when the data were analyzed for the group as a whole. However, when each camper's data were analyzed separately, 23 of the 25 adolescents had at least one significant glycemia-symptom (G-S) correlation. Each camper seemed to have a unique G-S pattern; only one symptom (hungry) was significantly related to BG for more than half of the youngsters studied. Almost all of the significant G-S correlations were indicative of low rather than high BG. However, when asked, few campers were able to accurately identify which symptoms were reliably associated with low or high BG. In this study, different measures of BG estimation error led to different results. The percent of estimates +/- 20% of the actual BG value (55% in this study) was strongly influenced by the actual BG reading because higher BG values have larger accuracy ranges than lower BG concentrations. When estimated BG was simply subtracted from actual BG, under- and overestimates canceled each other out, resulting in an unusually small estimated error (5 mg/dl in this investigation). The absolute difference score ignores the direction of estimation error, but may more accurately reflect patients' average estimation error (68 mg/dl in this study). When actual and estimated BG values were correlated for the group as a whole, the patients appeared to be highly accurate at estimating BG (r = .93, P less than .0001).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
CiteULike    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				L. Gonder-Frederick, J. Zrebiec, A. Bauchowitz, J. Lee, D. Cox, L. Ritterband, B. Kovatchev, and W. Clarke Detection of Hypoglycemia by Children With Type 1 Diabetes 6 to 11 Years of Age and Their Parents: A Field Study Pediatrics, March 1, 2008; 121(3): e489 - e495. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. M. Lane Advancing the Science of Perceptual Accuracy in Pediatric Asthma and Diabetes J. Pediatr. Psychol., April 1, 2006; 31(3): 233 - 245. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				C. Perrone, O. Laitano, and F. Meyer Effect of Carbohydrate Ingestion on the Glycemic Response of Type 1 Diabetic Adolescents During Exercise Diabetes Care, October 1, 2005; 28(10): 2537 - 2538. [Full Text] [PDF]

				L. J. Meltzer, S. Bennett Johnson, S. Pappachan, and J. Silverstein Blood Glucose Estimations in Adolescents With Type 1 Diabetes: Predictors of Accuracy and Error J. Pediatr. Psychol., April 1, 2003; 28(3): 203 - 211. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				C. M. Ryan, D. Dulay, C. Suprasongsin, and D. J. Becker Detection of Symptoms by Adolescents and Young Adults With Type 1 Diabetes During Experimental Induction of Mild Hypoglycemia: Role of hormonal and psychological variables Diabetes Care, May 1, 2002; 25(5): 852 - 858. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]