Guidance
This guideline covers care and treatment for adults (aged 18 and over) with type 1 diabetes. It includes advice on diagnosis, education and support, blood glucose management, cardiovascular risk, and identifying and managing long-term complications.
For information on related topics, see our cardiometabolic disease prevention and treatment summary page.
Last reviewed: 19 September 2024
We added links to relevant technology appraisal guidance in the section on optimising insulin therapy. This is to provide easy access to relevant guidance at the right point in the guideline only and is not a change in practice.
This guideline updates and replaces NICE technology appraisal guidance 53 and 60 and NICE evidence summaries ESNM24 and ESNM62. It also partially updates and replaces NICE guideline CG15 (published July 2004).
Next review: This guidance will be reviewed if there is new evidence that is likely to change the recommendations.
Recommendations
This guideline includes recommendations on:
- Diagnosis and early care plan
- Support and individualised care
- Education and information
- Dietary management
- Physical activity
- Blood glucose management
- Insulin therapy
- Insulin injection delivery
- Referral for islet or pancreas transplantation
- Hypoglycaemia awareness and management
- Ketone monitoring and managing diabetic ketoacidosis
- Associated illness
- Control of cardiovascular risk
- Caring for adults with type 1 diabetes in hospital
- Managing complications
Who is it for?
- Healthcare professionals
- Commissioners and providers
- Adults with type 1 diabetes, and their families and carers
Guideline development process
How we develop NICE guidelines
Your responsibility
The recommendations in this guideline represent the view of NICE, arrived at after careful consideration of the evidence available. When exercising their judgement, professionals and practitioners are expected to take this guideline fully into account, alongside the individual needs, preferences and values of their patients or the people using their service. It is not mandatory to apply the recommendations, and the guideline does not override the responsibility to make decisions appropriate to the circumstances of the individual, in consultation with them and their families and carers or guardian.
All problems (adverse events) related to a medicine or medical device used for treatment or in a procedure should be reported to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency using the Yellow Card Scheme.
Local commissioners and providers of healthcare have a responsibility to enable the guideline to be applied when individual professionals and people using services wish to use it. They should do so in the context of local and national priorities for funding and developing services, and in light of their duties to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, to advance equality of opportunity and to reduce health inequalities. Nothing in this guideline should be interpreted in a way that would be inconsistent with complying with those duties.
Commissioners and providers have a responsibility to promote an environmentally sustainable health and care system and should assess and reduce the environmental impact of implementing NICE recommendations wherever possible.