Study Shows Strides In Diabetes Care

Diabetes Patients Doing A Better Job At Meeting Blood Sugar Control Benchmark

(WebMD)  There's a positive new trend among U.S. diabetes patients: better blood sugar control.

Researchers report that it's becoming more common for adults with diabetes to meet a key diabetes benchmark: having a hemoglobin A1c level lower than 7 percent.

Hemoglobin A1c, checked by a blood test, gauges blood sugar control over the past two to three months. Better blood sugar control means less chance of diabetes complications.

A new study shows a decline in recent years in average hemoglobin A1c levels among U.S. adults with diabetes. Here's a quick look at those averages:

• 7.82% in 1999-2000


• 7.47% in 2001-2002


• 7.18% in 2003-2004

Those numbers, based on blood tests taken by diabetes patients in national health surveys, "may indicate that diabetes care improved dramatically between 1999 and 2004," the study states.



Room for Improvement

Despite the positive trend, the latest average hemoglobin A1c level noted in the study is still above optimal levels.

The researchers' message: Keep the trend going.

"These results should not breed complacency about the need for further efforts to achieve glycemic [blood sugar] control," write Thomas Hoerger, PhD, of RTI International in Research Triangle Park, N.C. and colleagues.

Their findings appear in January's edition of Diabetes Care.

One of the researchers who worked on the study -- the CDC's Jinan Saaddine, MD -- reported other improvements in U.S. diabetes care , including better self-monitoring of blood sugar levels.

But diabetes care isn't where experts want it to be. Last year, a government report showed that most adults with diabetes aren't getting three annual medical tests , including hemoglobin A1c tests.