For people without diabetes, however, the benefits appear to depend strongly on their health and how the technology is used, Polish state news agency PAP reported on Monday.
It said researchers from the University of Macau reviewed 23 studies involving more than 1,000 people from 11 countries to assess the use of CGM among people without diabetes.
CGM appeared to help participants follow healthier eating and lifestyle recommendations. The effect was more pronounced among people with prediabetes, while those with normal blood glucose levels did not show a clear improvement in glucose control.
The review found no significant effect on the body mass index (BMI). The researchers said CGM may support healthier lifestyle choices, but the evidence did not show a significant effect on body weight.
A separate study by researchers at the University of Niigata in Japan followed 168 people whose blood glucose levels indicated an increased risk of diabetes.
Participants were randomly divided into two groups. One group used a CGM system alongside lifestyle counseling through a smartphone app, while the other served as a control group.
Those using the CGM-based programme experienced a greater reduction in BMI and spent more time each day within the target glucose range.
Another study by researchers at the US National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) examined whether a single CGM measurement could reliably show how an individual responds to a particular meal.
The researchers analysed nearly 1,200 glucose responses to meals from 30 people without diabetes. Responses to the same meal in the same person varied considerably between measurements, suggesting that a single CGM reading may not be reliable enough to assess an individual's response to a particular meal.
Personalised dietary recommendations would therefore require multiple repeated measurements, the researchers said.
Overall, the evidence suggests that CGM may support lifestyle changes, particularly among people with prediabetes or an elevated risk of diabetes, while its benefits for people with normal glucose levels remain less clear.
The studies also indicate that more frequent glucose monitoring is not necessarily associated with greater weight loss and that a single glucose response after a meal may not provide enough information to make reliable dietary recommendations.
More research is needed to determine who is most likely to benefit from long-term CGM use and under what circumstances.
(sp/gs)
Source: zdrowie.pap.pl