What are the real-world benefits of flash glucose monitoring?

The devices are associated with marginally lower HbA1c and fewer hypoglycaemic events compared with self-monitoring, researchers find
Clare Pain

Flash glucose monitoring yields a small but sustained improvement in HbA1c for people with type 1 diabetes, according to one of the largest observational studies to date.

Although the difference might be too small to be clinically meaningful alone, the study also showed a 21% reduction in severe hypoglycaemic events with flash glucose monitoring (FGM) compared with self-monitoring, researchers say.

In the independently-funded study, data from the Swedish National Diabetes Registry for 14,372 adults with type 1 diabetes using FGM were compared with information on 7691 others who self-monitored.

Those in the FGM group had initiated use of the technology in 2016-17 and used it continuously for at least two years.