After several years of planning, discussion, and review, new guidelines for managing elevated blood glucose levels in people with type 2 diabetes, developed jointly by the American Diabetes Association and the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), are being published concurrently in the Association’s journal, April 19 online edition of Diabetes Care and in EASD’s journal, Diabetologia.
The new guidelines are less prescriptive than those previously in place, and call for a more patient-centered approach that allows for individual patient needs, preferences, and tolerances and takes into account differences in age and disease progression. The need for a joint task force to review and revise the guidelines was driven by the “increasingly complex and to some extent controversial” nature of glycemic management for type 2 diabetes, the “widening array of pharmacological agents now available, mounting concerns about their potential adverse effects, and new uncertainties regarding the benefits of intensive glycemic control on macrovascular complications,” according to the joint statement.
The guidelines call for providing all patients with diabetes education, in an individual or group setting, which focuses on dietary intervention and the importance of increased physical activity, as well as weight management, when appropriate. They encourage developing individualized treatment plans built around a patient’s specific symptoms, co-morbidities, age, weight, racial/ethnic/gender differences, and lifestyles.
Source: American Diabetes Association
