The A1C or Hemoglobin A1C test is something everyone living with diabetes should be familiar with.
It doesn’t show the whole picture of your diabetes management, but it can be a great indicator of whether your average blood sugar levels are within a healthy range.
Today, I’ll show you how to easily and accurately measure your A1C at home.
We’ll also discuss what an A1C test actually tells you, why it’s a relevant test, and how to interpret the results.
What is an A1C test
The A1C test is a blood test that reflects your average blood glucose over the last 3 months. It is reported as a percentage and people who don’t live with diabetes generally have an A1C below 5.7%.
That means that an A1C test can be a good starting point for a diabetes diagnosis as well as an indicator of whether your diabetes management approach is successful.
The American Diabetes Association has established the following A1C guidelines for using the test as part of a diabetes diagnosis:
A1C targets for people living with diabetes should be tailored to the individual, but generally, an A1C of 7% or lower is recommended. An A1C of 7% translates to an average blood sugar of around 154 mg/dl (8.6 mmol/L).
Some people living with diabetes strive for A1C levels below 5.7%, but aiming for a very low A1C is not always advisable, especially if it’s achieved through an excessive amount of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar).
Discuss your target A1C with your doctor and remember that it can always be adjusted up or down depending on what’s appropriate for you.
Why is it important to measure your A1C
Since elevated blood sugars can lead to a number of short- and long-term complications, it’s advisable to keep an eye on your A1C and ensure that it’s held at a healthy level.
If you find that your blood sugars (and thereby your A1C) are increasing above your target, there are several things you can do to reduce them, such as discussing adjusting your medication with your doctor, changing your diet, and making lifestyle changes
You can read our complete guide to lowering your A1C for more information.
Since the A1C tests give you a picture of your blood sugar level for the last 3 months, it makes sense to have your A1C measured at least every 3 months to keep track of how your blood sugars are progressing.
It the test is used for a diabetes diagnosis, you might have to also have your fasting blood sugar and antibody levels measured to determine which type of diabetes you live with, such as type 1 or type 2 diabetes.
How to use the A1C home test kit
There can be many reasons to measure your A1C at home, such as limited access to see your doctor, the distance to a lab, the cost of the lab work, etc.
There are great options for measuring your A1C at home, but please consult with your medical team before making any changes to your care or self-diagnosing diabetes.
One very affordable A1C home test kit is the A1CNow SelfCheck which I demonstrate how to use in the video below.
The kit comes with 4 A1C tests and will give you your A1C result in only 5 minutes. Follow the instructions that come with the kit and make sure to add enough blood or it will return an error message.
Are home A1C test kits accurate?
Most home A1C kits are considered to be as accurate as lab A1C tests. The results are accurate within plus/minus 0.5 percentage points, which is about the same as most lab results.
To ensure accuracy, look for products that are NGSP-certified (National Glycohemoglobin Standardization Program) and/or have FDA clearance or CE mark. All the products mentioned in this article are NGSP-certified.
When I tried the A1CNow SelfCheck at home (see the video above), the A1C results came back with exactly the same result as the A1C lab test I had done a few days earlier (I used Quest Diagnostics for the lab test).
How much does an A1C test kit cost?
The A1CNow SelfCheck I used in the video is $53.83 on Amazon (as of September 2020) for 4 tests. I chose this kit as it was the cheapest solution, but similar home A1C kits can be found on Amazon ranging from $60-$100 for 4 tests.
You can also find home A1C kits in most pharmacies such as CVS and Walmart.
A1C kits that require you to collect a blood sample at home and send it to a lab are also available.
These tests require a significantly larger blood collection (4-5 large droplets) and you can end up waiting up to 4 weeks (like I did when I tried it out) for your test results, depending on how fast the mail gets to the lab and back to you.
Is it covered by insurance?
Whereas most health insurances (private and government plans) cover blood work prescribed by your doctor and performed in a lab, it’s doubtful that your insurance will cover an at-home A1C test unless it’s a prescribed kit.
However, you can always call your insurance company or look up your benefits and find out if your plans cover at-home kits. If it does, your insurance company may have a preferred brand or specific process for you to get your kit.
This article has really helped me tremendously. I was getting tired of all the different things people are promoting out there as if there is no danger whatsoever with this disease! Thankfully I am not diabetic but such test results like what you discussed can freak out people who are reading trying to take care of themselves! I never heard of the range that labs give when trying to account for simple errors, sure makes a difference and how happy I am knowing I’m on the right track ! Thanks for listening to me and I’ve copied your article as it’s the best one yet I’ve uncovered.
where is the darn video? so much talk about this and that and you keep saying, see my video. where is it????
It’s under the heading “how to use an A1C kit at home” at the end of that section. If you don’t see it, it’s because your browser won’t show it. It happens sometimes and we don’t know why yet. You can also watch a longer version of the video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UYYB1L90pY&t=5s
Hi. I was diagnosed in April with prediabetes. My A1C was 5.7. I totally freaked out at first and ate nothing but salad and tested my A1C a month later and was down to five point two. But I knew I couldn’t keep living with on just salads and so I joined a Facebook group that follows the whole plate method which is females eat 30 to 45 good carbs per meal. Now before I was diagnosed I was 5’2, 118 lb, ate white pasta frequently, and certainly not a single serving size, more than one serving size, chocolates, bagels etc. I’ve been on the whole plate method, I have lost 15 lb, only eat 100% whole wheat or whole grain foods, 1/2 cup of brown rice pasta if I decide to have pasta. I occasionally will have a piece of 85% dark chocolate. I do an at home A1C test usually about every 6 weeks. My numbers go up and down from 5.5 to 5.7 etc. 2 weeks ago I tested my level and it was at 5.7. 3 days later my doctor scheduled me for lab work and my A1C was 6.0. I know that you said the test could be off by .5, but it’s really freaking me out because I don’t know if I’m doing better or getting worse. Plus I can’t understand how over the last 51 years of my life, I ate whatever I wanted and I got diagnosed as pre-diabetic at 5.7 and now that I’m eating very carefully, I’m still at 5.7 or higher. There is diabetes in my family, on both sides but I guess I just don’t understand how now that I’m eating better than ever before and I’m down to just over 100 lb my number hasn’t gone down as well. Any insight into this?
Our bodies change over time and this might just be a reflection of that change. But I would ask your doctor for an antibody test as well as a c-peptide test. Your A1c is still low, but you might not be producing enough insulin (insulin deficient) rather than only being insulin resistant (read more here: https://diabetesstrong.com/is-type-2-diabetes-reversible/). If you’re insulin deficient, there’s really very little you can achieve through exercise and diet alone.
I thought I read an article here about which A1c home test kit is the best one to buy. It included one or several videos that followed the writers efforts to decide. She went to a lab for the final test and she is inside her car talking about it. She has a bandaid in the crook of her elbow. The first kit results matched the lab results. She got the kit results at home in a few minutes. The second test was another kit but she had to send the test away to get the results and they did not match the other two. I cannot find this article and videos anywhere. There is one article that references a video (below) and there is no link there. The same article further down references a video (above) and there is no link above. So whatever the video was, its link is gone. The video may not have been what i was looking fo anyway. Was or is this article and video links on this site?
Hi Susan, I only have the video on YouTube, here you go https://youtu.be/5UYYB1L90pY
Hi Chrystel – I got the home self-test and tried it. I messed up the first time despite following the instructions and your video so I called the company for help and then tried again. It worked, and A1c is 6.3. I was kind of disappointed because it was 5.5 last time and I want this peripheral neuropathy to go away. It is pretty bad and affects my sleeping and walking. It is getting better but has a long way to go, so I want that A1c in the normal range until the neuropathy is the best it can be, and after that 6.3 would be fine with me – it allows a few more units of insulin and more snacks. I did reduce insulin to try and lose about 10 of the 30 pounds I gained on insulin, in spite of a very very careful diet, so that is the reason the A1c went up. I am learning as I go. This is my first year after diagnosis. I realize everyone says A1c of 6 to 7 is fine. It just isn’t fine with me. Anyway, thanks for the video, your great articles and everything I’ve learned.
Liz I was exactly the same, able to eat whatever I wanted and then right about your age it was like something just broke. I’ve heard other people say this too. I wasn’t diabetic and then bam, I was diabetic. Weird.
The accuracy is +/- 5%. That equates to roughly +/- 0.03 for a measurement of 5.7.
Well, 5% of 6 is not 0.03 but 0.3. So, an A1c of 6.0 could be a 5.7 or a 6.3 which makes a big difference. Even worse if your reading is 6.5, you’re either pre-diabetic with 6.2 or full diabetic with 6.8. I always thought that is absolutely ridiculous to diagnose such a formidable disease like diabetes based on a decimal number only. The +/- 0.3 could dramatically change your entire life. This A1c made the ENT doctor a very happy camper, no other tests are necessary. Go figure…
By the way, it is common practice for lab testing companies to add the instrument tolerance to the blood reading so a reported 6.0 is always 5.7.