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To study if self-monitoring of glucose, urinary or capillary, could help them to improve their metabolic control through better compliance to diet and/or hypoglycaemic agents, 208 non-insulin-treated poorly controlled diabetic patients were randomized to: group A--regular HbA1c determinations but no self-monitoring, group B--self-urine glucose monitoring, twice every other day, group C--self blood glucose monitoring, twice every other day, and followed six months. At the end of the study period, the decrease of HbA1c over six months--main endpoint--was not significantly different between the three groups (mean +/- SEM; group A: -0.5 +/- 0.2%; group B: -0.1 +/- 0.3%; group C: -0.4 +/- 0.3%). However, the degree of compliance to blood glucose self-monitoring in group C appeared to relate to the outcome: a significant correlation was found between the number of blood glucose strips used and the decrease of HbA1c (r = .36, p less than .02). We conclude that regular self-monitoring has no definite advantage over the usual management for improving metabolic control in non-insulin-treated diabetic patients, though it may possibly help patients ready to comply with its use.