Diabetes Self-Management Education and Training Among Privately Insured Persons with Newly Diagnosed Diabetes — United States, 2011–2012

Diabetes is a complex chronic disease that requires active involvement of patients in its management. Diabetes self-management education and training (DSMT), "the ongoing process of facilitating the knowledge, skill, and ability necessary for prediabetes and diabetes self-care," is an important component of integrated diabetes care. It is an intervention in which patients learn about diabetes and how to implement the self-management that is imperative to control the disease. The curriculum of DSMT often includes the diabetes disease process and treatment options; healthy lifestyle; blood glucose monitoring; preventing, detecting and treating diabetes complications; and developing personalized strategies for decision making. The American Diabetes Association recommends providing DSMT to those with newly diagnosed diabetes, because data suggest that when diabetes is first diagnosed is the time when patients are most receptive to such engagement. However, little is known about the proportion of persons with newly diagnosed diabetes participating in DSMT. CDC analyzed data from the Marketscan Commercial Claims and Encounters database (Truven Health Analytics) for the period 2009-2012 to estimate the claim-based proportion of privately insured adults (aged 18-64 years) with newly diagnosed diabetes who participated in DSMT during the first year after diagnosis. During 2011-2012, an estimated 6.8% of privately insured, newly diagnosed adults participated in DSMT during the first year after diagnosis of diabetes. These data suggest that there is a large gap between the recommended guideline and current practice, and that there is both an opportunity and a need to enhance rates of DSMT participation among persons newly diagnosed with diabetes.