OBJECTIVES: SMBG is one of the essential tools that helps patients safely achieve and maintain target glucose levels. Evidence from studies support frequent glucose monitoring for people using intensive insulin to achieve lower HbA_1c levels and to avoid the risk of hypoglycemia. 2018 ADA Standards of Care recommend that people using intensive insulin should test between 6 to 10 times or more daily. Similarly, UK NICE recommends 4–10 tests per day for people with type 1 diabetes (T1DM) receiving intensive insulin treatment. The 2018 guidelines from the Brazilian Diabetes Society recommend that people using intensive insulin perform at least 4 SMBG per day.

METHODS: An online literature search on SMBG behaviors in Latin America, with a focus on Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Argentina was conducted and relevant studies were identified.

RESULTS: In a study in type 2 diabetes (T2DM) (34% insulin users) from Mexico, McEwen et al. reported that only 8.8% engaged in SMBG daily. In a study in T1DM in Brazil, 93.33% reported monitoring glucose daily but only 42.86% monitor their glucose 3 times daily. Another study by Elgart et al. from Argentina reported strip use in T2DM using insulin as 34±17 per month.

CONCLUSIONS: People using intensive insulin are at increased risk of hypoglycemic events and regular glucose monitoring is important to mitigate this risk. Both individual and systems barriers exist today which preclude compliance to glucose monitoring recommendations. Tools which remove these barriers will improve adherence to glucose monitoring recommendations, which is evident in recent RCTs of newer glucose monitoring technologies such as flash glucose monitoring. Improved adherence to glucose monitoring by these newer systems and related clinical benefits may lead to reductions in costs of diabetes-related complications.