Fear of Hypoglycemia Screener

Background

This fear of hypoglycemia (FOH) screener was developed in collaboration between Eli Lilly and T1D Exchange, under the consultation of Drs. Lawrence Fisher, Frank Snoek, and Korey Hood. A pool of draft items was developed based on FOH literature, interviews with diabetes care providers, and interviews with adults living with type 1 diabetes (T1D). Subsequent quantitative research was conducted to finalize the nine items in this screener and established reliability and validity of the new screener [1,2,3].

Administering the screener

Administer this screener to adult (18 years or older) patients with T1D prior to their visits with the diabetes care team. The screener can be administered in either paper or electronic form. Clinicians are encouraged to discuss patients’ screener responses during their visits.

To monitor patients’ FOH over time, the screener is recommended to be administered at least once a year. The screener may be administered more frequently with clinician discretion, if patients score above threshold scores (see sections below) and are undergoing interventions to address FOH.

Understanding the screener scores

This screener is NOT a diagnostic tool for FOH, instead, it identifies adults with T1D who are at high risk for FOH and its related self-management behaviors that may lead to suboptimal diabetes outcomes, such as higher A1c and more comorbidities.