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Introduction This research intended to systematically evaluate the impact of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) on the emotional well-being of individuals with type 2 diabetes. It focused on the effects of CGM in four distinct patient-reported outcome domains: diabetes distress (measured by the diabetes distress scale DDS), treatment satisfaction (diabetes treatment satisfaction questionnaire DTSQ), psychological well-being (world health organization-5 well-being index WHO-5), and health-related quality of life (EuroQol five-dimensional questionnaire EQ-5D). Methods PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and Cochrane Library were retrieved from inception until April 2026 to collect randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing CGM with self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG). After two researchers independently performed literature screening, data extraction, and quality assessment, meta-analysis was conducted using Stata 16.0. Results A total of 9 RCTs comprising 1,453 individuals were included. All five studies reporting treatment satisfaction (DTSQ) showed a direction of effect favoring CGM over SMBG, although the magnitude of improvement varied widely and heterogeneity was extremely high (I²=98.9%), precluding a meaningful single summary estimate. However, no statistically significant differences were observed between the two groups in terms of diabetes distress (DDS) standardized mean difference (SMD)=-0.25, 95% confidence interval (CI) (-0.98, 0.17), psychological well-being (WHO-5) SMD = 0.08, 95% CI (-0.09, 0.25), or health-related quality of life (EQ-5D) SMD = 0.22, 95% CI (-0.20, 0.64). Conclusion Current evidence indicates that CGM may improve treatment satisfaction in individuals with type 2 diabetes, although this finding is limited by very high heterogeneity. Its effects on alleviating diabetes distress, improving psychological well-being, and enhancing health-related quality of life remain unclear and should be further investigated. Systematic review registration https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/ , identifier CRD42025634725.
Zhang et al. (2026) studied this question.