Nearly two-thirds were wearing their monitor in a spot other than the FDA-approved location, Litchman said.
Why do people move the devices around?
One reason is the need to avoid scar tissue. Another reason is for comfort. Also, the monitor should be moved to a different location on the abdomen every seven days, Litchman said. There’s only so much “real estate” on the body, especially in children, she added.
The good news? “Failure rates were similar in the abdomen, outer arm and thigh,” she noted.
The posterior arm — towards the back of the arm, an area that tends to be slightly fatty — was the most popular site, with almost 80 percent of people wearing the device there successfully, the findings showed.
Next in popularity was the abdomen, with a 77 percent success rate, followed by 69 percent success on the thigh.
More good news: These alternative sites were accurate, sometimes even more so than the abdomen. The sensor failure rate was 6.2 percent for the abdomen and only 2.2 percent on the outer arm and 3.3 percent on the thigh, the study found.
Litchman said people with type 1 diabetes seem to rely on social media posts to see other areas that people have tried. And they share information about what works and what doesn’t.