Diabetes management: How to stay with the program

A lifetime of diabetes management is a challenge. Your healthcare team may take the lead in planning the program, but it’s up to you to make it work.

For any chronic condition, sticking with a treatment plan over a long period can be difficult. Typically, about half of people let parts of their plan slide. Diabetes management involves taking medicines on schedule and adjusting dosages, monitoring blood glucose frequently, being aware of possible complications developing, and making other lifestyle changes.

The Diabetes Attitudes, Wishes, and Needs study showed how well people with diabetes follow various aspects of treatment. For example, 78% of those with type 2 diabetes reported taking medications faithfully, 64% monitored their blood glucose as instructed, 37% kept to their prescribed diet, and 35% followed their prescribed exercise plan. In each category, people with type 1 diabetes did a little better than those with type 2.

Overcoming obstacles

To manage diabetes, it’s important to understand the disease and its possible complications, such as heart and kidney disease. What are the barriers to following a management plan?

Stress and psychological problems such as anxiety and depression are examples of what can become a barrier to your sticking with the care plan. A member of your healthcare team can provide counseling, refer you to a counselor, or offer other forms of help that can keep you on track.

Certain factors make a plan easier to follow. It’s important that the plan make sense to you and that you are willing and able to carry it out. It also helps if your family, friends, and co-workers support changes that you need to make in your lifestyle. In addition, research has shown that having a trusting, supportive relationship with your healthcare team makes it much more likely that you’ll follow a management plan. It helps, too, to be organized. You can use, for example, supportive reminders of upcoming medical appointments.

Taking charge—to a degree

Because diabetes is essentially self-managed, you must be independent to some extent. For example, you’ll need to choose strategies that are likely to work for you, and you’ll need to solve specific problems. If you’re being told what to do, in a non-partnership fashion, you’re less likely to follow that instruction. Healthcare providers need to recognize that their role is that of a partner, not simply an expert adviser.

As you learn to manage your diabetes, it’s helpful to be open to suggestions. Ask questions to make sure you understand why something needs to be done. When an action is added to your daily routine, have your healthcare provider write down the details. In addition, many people find it worthwhile to set goals that are specific and to measure their progress in working toward the goal.

From Clinical Diabetes