How to choose a blood glucose meter

Anyone with diabetes can benefit from testing. Blood glucose monitoring can be particularly important for those taking insulin or other diabetes medications, women with gestational diabetes (diagnosed during pregnancy), and those having difficulty with controlling their diabetes.

If you rely on a home blood glucose meter for sugar control, use our Ratings (available to subscribers) to find the one that's best for you: convenient to use, accurate, and capable of producing repeatable results. Talk with your doctor or diabetes educator about your goals, and decide which features matter most. Then consider:

Insurance

Medicare covers diabetes-related supplies, and private insurance might cover some or all of the cost. Start by looking up your plan to see if there are certain brands of blood glucose meters and strips it will cover. Find out how many test strips, if any, are covered per month. Your strip coverage will depend on whether you use insulin, for example.

Cost

Don't just look at the retail price of the meters themselves, which range from $9 to $84. That's the good news. What makes blood glucose monitoring expensive is the test strips, which you might use many times a day. At $39 to $120 per 100 test strips, the cost can add up to about $1,750 a year for people who test four times a day. The three ReliOn models from Walmart were all Best Buys because the strips they use are interchangeable and cost $39 per 100–about $570 a year for those who use them four times a day. The ReliOn units themselves cost just $9. Replacement lancets are another expense to consider.

Automatic coding

Blood glucose meters need to be calibrated to each batch of test strips. Some require you to enter a code, and if you do it incorrectly you could get inaccurate results. Eight of our recommended models have an auto-code or no-code feature that calibrates to the test strip batch automatically. Others use a removable code chip to calibrate the meter to each batch of strips.

Data storage

The most convenient blood glucose meters store at least 360 test results. Some also track the average of your readings over seven, 14, or 30 days to give you a view of your overall blood sugar control. If you check your blood glucose frequently, consider a model with lots of memory. The Accu-Check Aviva, Accu-Check Compact Plus, and One Touch Ultra2 store 500 results or more, have data-averaging functions, and allow you to download data to a computer. Although it was not a top performer in our tests, the Bayer Contour allows users to plug the device directly into a computer's USB port to download data.

Test time

The difference of a few seconds might not seem like much, but when you're using a meter three to five times a day, a longer test time can be a nuisance. Our panelists found that 5 seconds or less was desirable.

Markers and flags

They allow you to note whether a reading was taken before or after a meal or exercise.

Unit size

If you're frequently on the go, look for a compact meter. The FreeStyle Lite, OneTouch UltraMini, ReliOn Micro, and True2go were the most compact Recommended models. Some of the larger models, like the Accu-Check Compact Plus and the Bayer Breeze 2, store multiple strips so you don't need to load one for each test, but our panelists found them bulky. Still, those models might make home testing more convenient, especially for those with dexterity or vision difficulties. The top-rated Accu-Check Compact Plus also uses AAA batteries, which might be easier to replace in a pinch than finding a watch or medical battery, which most require.

Blood-sample size

Today's blood glucose meters require smaller blood samples than those from years past. That makes testing less painful. If you're sensitive to lancing, look for a meter that requires less than one microliter of blood.