Gain in patients' knowledge of diabetes management targets is associated with better glycemic control.

Optimal glycemic, lipid, and blood pressure control has been shown to decrease the microvascular and macrovascular complications of diabetes (1– 10). However, the status of control of these cardiovascular risk factors in individuals with diabetes is far from optimal (11,12). Lack of patients’ knowledge of the targets of diabetes care might be one of the reasons for the low level of control of risk factors. Some studies showed that only 23–25% of individuals with diabetes know what the target A1C level is ( 7%), and about the same percent of patients know how to interpret A1C values in relation to their own glycemic control (13,14). Improving patients’ knowledge might help attain the goals of diabetes management, but the supporting studies are limited (14–18). We investigated whether the gain in the knowledge of the targets of diabetes care after receiving diabetes selfmanagement education (DSME) predicts the achievement of target A1C levels ( 7%) at 6 months.