Adults with type 2 diabetes on basal insulin who started using a continuous glucose monitor had a 44% lower risk of dying within a year.
That was compared to similar patients who did not use one.
The finding comes from a large real-world analysis presented at the EASD 2026 conference in Milan.
At two years, the mortality gap was still there. The death rate came out 35% lower among sensor users.
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The analysis also linked continuous glucose monitoring to a 26% lower risk of new cardiovascular events at one year.
Heart failure hospitalizations dropped by more than half in the same window.
What a continuous glucose monitor is
A continuous glucose monitor, or CGM, is a small wearable sensor that sits on the arm or abdomen.
It reads blood sugar every few minutes and sends the numbers to a phone or reader.
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The user sees whether glucose is rising, falling or steady. That is a big shift from the finger-prick check, which captures a single moment in time.
The 2026 Standards of Care from the American Diabetes Association now recommend CGM for adults with type 2 diabetes on insulin, with the highest evidence rating.
In practice, many patients on basal insulin still do not use one.
What the numbers actually mean
The analysis compared about 14,000 CGM users with 14,000 matched non-users.
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All were US adults with type 2 diabetes on basal insulin. Data came from Truveta, a database of more than 140 million US electronic health records.
Groups were matched on 29 characteristics, including age, blood sugar control and other health conditions.
The absolute death rate at one year was 1.16% among sensor users and 2.09% among non-users.
This is not a randomized trial. It is what researchers call a target trial emulation, a design that tries to mimic a randomized comparison using real-world data.
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Professor Jochen Seufert of the University Hospital of Freiburg led the study.
He cautioned that as an observational study, unmeasured confounding cannot be ruled out.
The findings have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Access is the harder question
CGM adoption has been growing, and Medicare coverage has widened. Beneficiaries on insulin or with a history of low blood sugar can qualify for a sensor under Medicare Part B.
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Cost-sharing is 20% of the Medicare-approved amount after the annual deductible.
Private coverage varies. For patients paying out of pocket, the monthly price of sensors is still a real barrier.
There are also skills to learn. The ADA notes that when a doctor prescribes a CGM, the patient should be offered training on how to read the data and act on it.
A sensor that goes unused delivers no benefit.
Anyone with type 2 diabetes on insulin who is not using a sensor can ask their doctor whether a CGM makes sense for them and whether it is covered by their plan.
This article is made and published by Ida-Marie Palm Varbæk, who may have used AI in the preparation.