Diabetes lessons in school

[Lily123]

The lesson went well, no ignorance there but doing a bit of revision on the school approved website and this is it



What are these units???

 

[Pumper_Sue]

It's the American blood sugar readings 🙂

 

[Lily123]

I thought they used mg/dl? As to the actual numbers, that’s what I’m thinking

 

[Pumper_Sue]

Here you go https://www.disabled-world.com/calculators-charts/bgl.php the bottom line on the graph is minutes after a meal.
So their 225 is equal to our 12.5

 

[Leadinglights]

I thought they used mg/dl? As to the actual numbers, that’s what I’m thinking

It does look like mg/dl which are the units used in some other countries but not the UK, divide by 18 to convert to mmol/l which is what we use here.

 

[Robin]

1000 cubic centimetres (ie 10cmx10cmx10cm) is equal to 1 litre,
1dl is a tenth of a litre.
Hence, 100cubic centimetres = 1 decilitre.

 

[Lily123]

Ah, that makes sense thanks, is a strange way of writing it out though as opposed to using mg/dl or mmol/l

 

[Leadinglights]

Ah, that makes sense thanks, is a strange way of writing it out though as opposed to using mg/dl or mmol/l

As you are in the UK it would be less confusing if they used the units we use here.

 

[Sally71]

My daughter did the diabetes part of her GCSE course during lockdown, and it was pretty tragic, the numbers on the graph didn’t seem to be either mmol/L or mg/dl so made no sense at all! I think it was mg/l. I know the point of the question was only to see if you can read a graph and explain why blood sugars go up and down, and that most people don't have a clue what the correct range of numbers would be, but it makes you wonder what else they teach you which isn’t right!

 

[Docb]

The y axis units are mg/dl - 100 cm^3 is a dl.

Divide the values on the y axis by 18 and you get mmol/l, the units we are used to using in the UK. So for example, the start point of 90 mg/dl for non diabetics becomes 5 mmol/l. You will need to get your calculator out to convert the rest!

If you do not know, a mol is the molecular mass of a compound (180 for glucose, 6 x mw of carbon + 12 x mw hydrogen +6 x mw of oxygen ) expressed in grams. So, mg/dl and mmol/l are both mass/volume and so can be converted using a simple conversion factor. I'll leave you to work out that it is no coincidence that at 18, the conversion factor is one tenth of the molecular weight of glucose.

 

[Lily123]

Thanks,

@Docb I understand that, thanks

The conversion between is simple and yes as it’s only to read the graph it does raise questions.

The poster I’m doing on diabetes for a biology assignment explains the units (it doesn’t need to be but extra info never hurt anyone!)

 

[Bruce Stephens]

My daughter did the diabetes part of her GCSE course during lockdown, and it was pretty tragic, the numbers on the graph didn’t seem to be either mmol/L or mg/dl so made no sense at all!

A web search produces graphs using mmol/L (as we'd use) and mg/dl, but also mmol/dm^3 which is the same as mmol/L but weird (I wonder if it's sometimes used in academic papers for some reason). As you all say it would make lots of sense just to use mmol/L and I've no idea why there's variation in this country. (I can imagine DSNs being taught about mg/dl, but not students for GCSE since diabetes is surely a small part of biology so it's not worth including that.)

 

[trophywench]

Ah, that makes sense thanks, is a strange way of writing it out though as opposed to using mg/dl or mmol/l

What do you expect from a country which despite it's currency being decimalised - ie one dollar = 100 cents - like forever, can't cope with decimalised anything else ! Would yer average American 21 year old know what centi, milli, kilo etc, indicated infront of whatever word it precedes? Personally - I think not. Should you happen to need a widget to fix a wimwam (engineering terminology LOL) and you know Harley Davidson make exactly what you need - it's a nightmare trying to find US produced accessories or fasteners that fit anything European. They still machine stuff to thousands of an inch, NOT millimetres.

 

[SB2015]

The lesson went well, no ignorance there but doing a bit of revision on the school approved website and this is it

View attachment 26163

What are these units???

At least they have labelled their axes.
Far too often you get graphs used without the info!!!!

 

[Lily123]

At least they have labelled their axes.
Far too often you get graphs used without the info!!!!

True, I’ve seen too many with the axes labelled the wrong way round

 

[Sally71]

Hope this works… am trying to post a link to my previous thread where I expressed my annoyance at how wrong my daughter's GCSE diabetes education was! Unfortunately they weren’t learning in classrooms at the time so she had no opportunity to argue or explain to the class how it really works

http://forum.diabetes.org.uk/boards/threads/this-is-what-they-teach-them-in-schools-these-days.90915/

 

[Lily123]

That’s bad but not surprising, luckily the info we were given in class was correct, also makes me grateful that no staff at my school make assumptions - if the first aider is unsure she asks me.

Did you daughter get a better informed lesson once they were back in the classroom?

 

[Sally71]

No, that was it, they touched on it just for one piece of work and that was it! If only it had come up when they weren’t in lockdown I’m sure she'd have put everyone straight, as it was she didn’t get the chance
She's doing A level biology now, don’t know if it will come up there at all, her time in college is pretty disjointed at the moment because of medical issues. Shame

 

[Lily123]

That’s not good then, I only had one lesson but the project my class were set was to do a poster on diabetes. Mine is 1200 words (oops) and the resources we were given are factually correct.

I hope your daughters health issues improve

 

[Sally71]

Thank you, it's a lot better than a couple of years ago but as one thing improves something else happens! Diabetes is the easy bit now, never thought I’d ever say that!