What is an insulin correction factor (ICF)?
An ICF is how many points your blood sugar will drop with 1 unit of insulin. The ICF corrects a high or low pre-meal blood sugar level. This dose will either be added or subtracted to the dose given before the meal. To learn how to use an ICF with this worksheet:
How to use a correction factor to reach your target blood sugar
- Subtract your target blood sugar from your current blood sugar.
- Divide this by your correction factor.
Current Blood Sugar – Target Blood Sugar = Correction Insulin Dose
Correction Factor
Example: Your before meal blood sugar is 200. You blood sugar target is 120. Your correction factor is 40.
200 – 120 = 80 ÷ by 40 = 2 units of insulin to take to correct your high blood sugar. You should add this insulin dose to your insulin – to - carb ratio dose.