Evidence-Based Practice on Diabetes

Identify a research or evidence-based article that focuses comprehensively on a specific intervention or new diagnostic tool for the treatment of diabetes in adults or children.

In a paper of 750-1,000 words, summarize the main idea of the research findings for a specific patient population. Research must include clinical findings that are current, thorough, and relevant to diabetes and the nursing practice.

BENCHMARK ASSIGNMENT: EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICE PROJECT

Evidence-Based Practice on Diabetes

Considering that Diabetes is a health concern in America, it is important that the diseases if efficiently diagnosed through the use of appropriate tools in order to have a clear understanding of its control, a factor that can be achieved through the education of patients (Nathan, Kuenen, Borg, Zheng, Schoenfeld, & Heine, 2012). This point to the fact that is easier to determine the appropriate interventions that can be applied in the management of this disease.

According to sources from the Centre of Disease Control in America, diabetes is highly increasing in with the number of affected individuals swelling up to 18.2 million from the initial figures that stood at 5.6 million between 2000 and 2010 (Nathan, et.al. 2012). In addition to this, it is significant to determine that CDC has also reported approximately 7 million individuals who are undiagnosed with the disease.

In this case, it can be established that diabetes requires the incorporation of early interventions since it is caused by an increase in a patients insulin levels of an insufficient supply of insulin. If this disease is not detected in its early stages, it can result in the destruction of an individual’s body system (Nathan, et.al. 2012). Through the inclusion of evidence based diagnostic tool the state of this disease is likely to be identified in its early stages, a factor that will result in the deployment of early interventions and the training of the patients in its management.

There are two primary types of diabetes in which type 1 is likely to be diagnosed among the adults and children since as a result of the body’s failure to produce its function in the production of insulin (Nathan, et.al. 2012). According to the findings of a research conducted by the American Association of Diabetes, close to 5% of patients suffer from this type of diabetes. The treatment approach of this type of diabetes includes the use of insulin therapy and other treatment methods.

Diabetes 2, which is the most widespread, occurs as a result of inadequate insulin in the body as well as poor utilization of insulin available in the body by the cells. This leads to an increase in the quantity of glucose in the body which has diverse impacts like kidney damage, eyes, nerves and the heart which can have fatal consequences (Nathan, et.al. 2012). Considering the fact that diabetes type 2 is complex to handle, it is vital its management and intervention to be done during the early stages in order to avoid negative impacts on the body cells.

An Evidence Based Diabetes Diagnostic Tool

It is essential for patients diagnosed with diabetes to partake regular health checkups including laboratory testing in clearly analyzing the proper treatment methods for these patients. In line with this, a laboratory testing toll known as AIC is considered as efficient in the diagnosis of this disease. Over the past, the AIC testing toll was used in checking and determining the average glucose levels in a diabetic patient for a period of three month (Nathan, et.al. 2012). Physicians would therefore include the fasting blood glucose to establish the levels of glucose in the body, a factor that would result in the acquisition of wrong results especially in instances where a patient had not eaten.

However, current research on this evidence based diagnostic tool has established that this evidence based diagnostic tool known as AIC would give the physicians an understanding of a patient’s blood glucose level. This can be achieved through an averaged approach that bases in the percentage system without encountering diagnostic errors when the use of the fasting patient’s blood glucose testing is included (Nathan, et.al. 2012). The AIC test approach has been considered as essential since it does not require a diabetic patient to fast for a period of eight hours before the test. In as much as this testing approach is considered as crucial, some medical practitioners have termed it as confusing since it incorporates the average system which may be a challenging concept to depict. Through an AIC derived average glucose study, the average system was established to be easier for the patients and well as the medical personnel to understand.

The rationale behind the average glucose study was to clearly identify whether the accumulated AIC results could be articulated through the same units utilized in monitoring the daily levels of glucose in a patient’s body.  As established, ADAG was considered as effective considering that it provided a mathematical equation that would be utilized in converting the achieved results that would establish the average glucose level (Nathan, et.al. 2012). ADAG therefore proved that through the trials that were conducted on 507 patients within ten different international centers, the results of an AIC would be expressed through an estimated average level of glucose by using a mathematical equation. Additionally, this study also confirmed that there are assumptions that the AIC tool represents only the average glucose estimates. 

The methodologies that were employed in this research were directed towards doing a comparison on the values of AIC on each and every patient. This therefore required a daily glucose reading for a period of two days within the time intervals of four hours (Nathan, et.al. 2012).The research study therefore utilized close to 2700 glucose measurements that were effectively analyzed through the use of a linear regressive concept to determine the relationship with the results which were obtained before the research. It is therefore essential to establish that the AIC evidence based diagnostic tool is effective in the identification of several diabetic patients as opposed to the other methods.

References

Nathan, D. M., Kuenen, J., Borg, R., Zheng, H., Schoenfeld, D., & Heine, R. J. (2012). Translating the A1C Assay into Estimated Average Glucose Values. Diabetes Care, 31(8), 1473-1478.