Open Access

Research Article

A Review on the Clinical Impact of Point of Care Capillary Blood Glucose Measurement in Diabetes Patients in Public Primary Care Clinics in Hong Kong

Department of Family Medicine and Primary Health Care, United Christian Hospital, 130 Hip Wo Street, Kwun Tong, Hong Kong, China

Corresponding Author:

Wong SN
Department of Family Medicine and Primary Health Care
United Christian Hospital, 130 Hip Wo Street
Kwun Tong, Hong Kong, China
Tel: +852 3518 7710
Fax: +852 2754 6900
E-mail: wongsn1@ha.org.hk

Received Date: February 19, 2016; Accepted Date: March 21, 2016; Published Date: March 31, 2016

Citation: Wong SN, Lai KPL, Chow KL, Luk MHM, Chan PF, et al. (2016) A Review on the Clinical Impact of Point of Care Capillary Blood Glucose Measurement in Diabetes Patients in Public Primary Care Clinics in Hong Kong. J Clin Diabetes Pract 1:105. doi:10.4172/jcdp.1000105

Copyright: © 2016 Wong SN, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Background: Point of Care (POC) capillary blood glucose measurement in diabetes patients in the primary care setting has been used in out-patient settings for many years; however, there were no published studies on the clinical impact of this practice. Aim: To evaluate the clinical impact of Point of Care (POC) capillary blood glucose measurement in diabetes patients and to evaluate the risk factors in patients with abnormal POC capillary blood glucose readings. Method: A retrospective review study was conducted in two public primary care clinics in Hong Kong. 784 diabetic patients were included in the study after randomisation. The POC capillary blood glucose readings during follow up would be documented and analysed. Factors that might be associated with abnormal POC capillary blood glucose readings were evaluated. Results: Among the 2573 consultations, 1.6% was found to have hypoglycaemia readings (capillary blood glucose level<4 mmol/L) while clinically significant hyperglycaemia (capillary blood glucose level ≥ 14 mmol/L) was detected in 4.5% consultations. Further analysis of the results identified male patients, patients on more number of oral anti-diabetics drugs, patients on insulin, patients without practice of self-monitoring of blood glucose and patients with suboptimal latest HbA1c were more likely to have abnormal POC capillary blood glucose readings. Conclusions: POC capillary blood glucose levels might provide additional clinical information about the current diabetic control. However, if resources were limited, it could be selectively performed in patients with the risk factors for abnormal POC capillary blood glucose readings.

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