Realtime Continuous Glucose Monitoring in Children and Adolescents— An Overview of the Current Technology and its Impact on Patient Outcomes

Abstract

It can be challenging to maintain euglycemia in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes due to their eating habits, growing and changing bodies, erratic schedules, still developing cognitive systems, inability to manage their diabetes on their own, and presence of multiple care-givers. RT-CGM systems can be used in this group of patients to more closely monitor their varying glucose levels and help them achieve good glycemic control. Previously, studies of patients with type 1 diabetes using CGM did not show the same benefits in the younger population as in adults. [3][4][5] However, recent reports have found benefits of using RT-CGM in youth. 6-10 RT-CGM use in children and adolescents has increased, but it is still not as wide as in adults. Initial Research StudiesEarly studies of RT-CGM found that only patients with type 1 diabetes who were at least 25 years of age and who wore glucose sensors at least 60 % of the time significantly benefited from this technology. 3,5,11,12 This was the case, for example, of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) study, which found that RT-CGM effectively lowered glycated hemoglobin (HbA 1c ) in such patients and decreased the time they spent in hyperglycemia. 3 A more recent study found glycemic benefits in those who wore glucose sensors at least 41-60 % of the time, 13 showing that RT-CGM can be beneficial even when used less frequently.Although RT-CGM has been shown to benefit patients, 2,5,6,11,13