Correction doses

Your correction dose is how much 1 unit of insulin will reduce your blood glucose level by.

Follow the steps below to calculate your correction dose (this calculation is also available in a printable worksheet here). The ABCD current recommendation for calculating your correction dose is 130/TDD:

Calculate your total daily pump dose as described in the previous ‘Initial insulin doses’ topic, and then divide 130 by your TDD:

This means that 1 unit of insulin will reduce your blood glucose by approximately X mmol/L.

For example:

Calculate your total daily pump dose as described previously in ‘Initial insulin doses‘

Total daily pump dose = 30 units

This means that 1 unit of insulin will reduce your blood glucose by approximately 4 mmol/L.

For ten steps to improving your type 1 diabetes control, click here.

Monitoring Blood Glucose Levels and Targets

Monitoring blood glucose (BG) levels is even more important when starting on an insulin pump to give you the information needed to adjust the rates and take appropriate boluses. You should continue to monitor BG in the usual way. If doing finger-prick checks, it is likely you will need to check blood glucose at least 4–6 times daily, or even more at the start.

You should continue to aim for good glucose levels to reduce your risk of long-term complications. Your insulin pump team will discuss what are the correct glucose targets for you.

The following are targets come from the DAFNE (Dose Adjusting For Normal Eating) course, which you might be familiar with, and similar targets from national guidelines:

	DAFNE Target	National Target
Breakfast	5.5–7.5 mmol/L	5–7 mmol/L
Other meal times	4.5–7.5 mmol/L	4–7 mmol/L
Bedtime	6.5–8.0 mmol/L	4–7 mmol/L

Pregnancy

The target glucose levels before and during pregnancy are even lower than those shown above; ensure you have been given appropriate targets by your team.