Medizinische Universität Graz - Research portal

Go directly to the nagivation.
Go directly to the content.

Navigation/Search

Selected Publication:

Sutter, S.
Diabetic alert Dogs - Medical and social assistance for patients with DM1- A questionnaire based survey
Humanmedizin; [ Diplomarbeit ] Graz Medical University; 2016. pp. [OPEN ACCESS]
FullText

Authors Med Uni Graz:
Advisor:: Höller Vera; Köhler Gerd
Altmetrics:
Abstract:: Diabetic alert dogs (DAD) are known to detect hypo- and hyperglycemia. But these dogs do not simply serve as medical assistance; they are also an important partner and supporter for patients with type 1 diabetes. By applying this questionnaire we evaluated the quality of life and glycemic control for patients with type1 diabetes and the change since getting the DAD. The average decrease of the HbA1c (n=14) under assistance of a DAD trained by the Animal Training Center was -0,3 and ranged from +1,2 to -1,3. We assumed the limit of hyperglycemia = 200mg/dl and hypoglycemia =80mg/dl. Individual variations may appear between different patients. The fear and concern for hyperglycemia improved since ownership of a DAD <1year by 63% (33% much better, 30% better) and >1year by 78% (50% much better, 28% better), for hypoglycemia <1year by 77% (33% much better, 44% better) and >1year by 94% (72% much better, 22% better). The increased frequency of testing blood glucose and the related pain causes an inconvenience for 40% of the patients. The families owning a DAD feel their emotional and psychological burden eased by 65% (38% much better, 27% better) by ownership <1year and 76% (53% much better, 23% better) by >1year. The sleeping behavior of the ones in responsibility improved for overall 57% (43% much better, 14% better). We evaluated notification protocols of six real life existing patient-with-DAD-teams, covering several months each. The overall best dog showed 87% correct alerts (the worst dog 50%), 12% wrong alerts (the worst dog 36%) and 1% missed alerts (the worst dog 12%). 55% of the owners described the alerting behavior of their dog as good, 15% as satisfactory and 30% as excellent.