Study on the method for relieving fingertip pain in monitoring fingertip blood glucose / 中华老年医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the method to relieve fingertip pain in monitoring fingertip blood glucose.Methods A total of 130 newly admitted patients with type 2 diabetes received glucose monitoring 6 times daily at different time points.Blood sampling was taken from different sites including the central and top of middle finger pulp,central and side of ring finger pulp,top of middle finger with pressing the acupoint of Hegu at the same time or pressing acupoint of Hegu for 1 minute before blood taking.Pain degree was assessed by numeric rating scale after blood glucose taking.Pain scores were compared among the different methods.Results There were significant differences in pain scores between different methods (x2 =164.83,P＜0.05).Pain score was higher in sampling blood on the side of ring finger pulp,while the proportion of subjects with mild pain after pressing Hegu was increased significantly.There were significant differences in pain scores between subjects with versus without pressing Hegu (all P＜0.05).Pain degree was reduced more significantly by pressing Hegu for 1 minute before blood taking than pressing Hegu at the same time of sampling blood,and the former had a higher proportion of subjects with only mild pain than the latter (x2 =10.44,P＜0.01).There were no significant differences in pain scores between the other methods (all P＞ 0.05).Conclusions Pressing Hegu can effectively reduce fingertip pain in fingertip blood glucose monitoring,and pressing Hegu for 1 minute before blood taking is more effective.