Continuous glucose monitoring: A cost effective tool to reduce pre-term birth rates in women with type 1 diabetes

Background: Women with type one diabetes experience poorer obstetric outcomes than normoglycaemic women in pregnancy.

Objective: To investigate the cost and clinical effectiveness of continuous glucose monitoring (GCM) compared to self-monitoring of blood glucose in improving obstetric outcomes in women with type one diabetes during pregnancy.

Materials and Methods: This retrospective cohort study included women with type one diabetes referred to a state-wide tertiary obstetric centre before and after the introduction of government-funded CGMs in Australia in March 2019. Forty-nine women using CGMs were propensity matched on a range of clinical features with a historical group of 49 women with type one diabetes who exclusively used intermittent self-monitoring of blood in the year prior to the introduction of funding of sensors. Medical records and administrative cost data were audited to quantify cost and clinical effectiveness.

Results: There were significantly lower pre-term (95% CI 0.39–0.922; P = 0.026) and very pre-term birth rates (95% CI 1.002–1.184; P = 0.041) in the CGM group. There was a significant reduction in the length of antenatal inpatient hospital stay (P 
Conclusions: CGM use in pregnancy is a cost-effective intervention for reducing the risk of pre-term birth in women with type one diabetes, resulting in a net cost benefit to the health sector.