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Our concern was that some patients do not fully understand hypoglycaemia and as a result mismanage episodes. A self-completed questionnaire was administered to 125 type 1 diabetes patients attending for a routine appointment. 75 respondents (mean age 52.5, range 18±78; 44% male, 56% female) answered questions related to identi®cation, treatment and access to information regarding hypoglycaemia. The results show that a signi®cant proportion of the group were unable to identify 4 mmol/L as the starting point of hypoglycaemia. Only 24% correctly treated hypoglycaemia with short and long acting carbohydrate. 6% gave inappropriate choices of food. 57% exclusively ate short acting carbohydrate to treat their symptoms. 80% identi®ed warning symptoms. 17% reported solely autonomic symptoms whilst 40% reported autonomic coupled with nueroglycopenic. Despite only 4% receiving no information at all, patients with diabetes are still failing to correctly identify and treat hypoglycaemic episodes. The main responsibility to improve and support behaviour with respect to hypoglycaemia lies with the health professionals involved in diabetes care, in partnership with patients. Recommendations are to modify information given to patients to ensure equal emphasis to short and long acting carbohydrate for the treatment of hypoglycaemia and to approach manufacturers to update their literature to re¯ect this.

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