We have known all along that helping people understand their T1 leads to better health outcomes, but we rarely quantify how much help such education provides. However, new findings by the Diabetes Forum and the Association of British Clinical Diabetologists has found that such education can dramatically improve the quality of life for people with diabetes and even reduce taxpayer money spent on public health care.

The survey by Diabetes Forum looked into how satisfied the T1 community was with their quality of life, as well as how much anxiety people with T1 felt towards the possibility of experiencing a hypo or other diabetes-related complications. Once the results were analyzed, there was a strong correlation between those who felt in control of their diabetes management and those who reported lower HbA1c levels. (The data didn’t draw a completely straight line, however. People’s anxiety of experiencing a hypo wasn’t directly correlated with feeling in control; the majority of people experiencing anxiety over hypos had HbA1c levels between 6 and 8.9.) Most importantly, the survey showed that feeling in control of diabetes went hand in hand with a strong understanding of diabetes and having access to training on how to properly manage it.