As The Big Blue Test nears (this Saturday at 2 pm YOUR local time) and, since today is d-blog day, I thought it was the perfect moment to share the results we saw last July during our 14KPWD event (i.e. 14,000 People With Diabetes). That day, we had the goal of having 14,000 people with diabetes testing their blood sugar at the same time and share their reading online.
We ran this project on TuDiabetes, EsTuDiabetes, Diabetes Daily and Twitter. We also ran it on Facebook, but it was next to impossible to adequately capture the data there.
Below are the charted results per site. Each chart shows the BG values across the bottom (in mg/dL) and their frequency (how many times they were reported) across the left axis.
TUDIABETES & ESTUDIABETES
Number of total entries: 534 Minimum BG: 48 mg/dL Maximum BG: 450 mg/dL Mode BG: 108 mg/dL (most frequent value) Median BG: 141 mg/dL (value right in the middle of all values reported)DIABETESDAILY
Number of total entries: 96 Minimum BG: 10 mg/dL (a very scary low!) Maximum BG: 443 mg/dL Mode BG: 90 mg/dL (most frequent value) Median BG: 131 mg/dL (value right in the middle of all values reported)To me, this paints the picture of a possibility:
-The possibility of better diabetes management through testing.
-The possibility of what we can accomplish together (now joined by 7 other communities) on World Diabetes Day, as part of The Big Blue Test.
-The possibility of reaching out to many other people touched by diabetes: no person with diabetes who has online access should be left out!
I want to particularly thank Gilberto Pagua and his wife Lena, as well as Kandra (from Twitter), for their SUPER-VALUABLE help in tabulating this data. Without their help… we would still not have the final numbers.