Home BP monitoring effective in managing hypertension

The use of home BP monitoring may allow health care providers to reduce medications for patients with hypertension while simultaneously controlling the condition more effectively, according to findings presented at the American Heart Association’s Joint Hypertension Scientific Sessions.

“Clinical guidelines recommend [home blood pressure monitoring] to evaluate and treat [hypertension],” Roy R. Champion, MSc, BSN, clinical quality RN at Scott and White Health Plan in Temple, Texas, and colleagues wrote. “Our Hypertension Control Initiative supports a multimodality approach as being cost-effective and sets the groundwork for further [quality improvement] efforts to better discern each process regarding the use of [home blood pressure monitoring].”

From September 2016 to May 2017, researchers gave Scott and White Health Plan and Medicare members with persistently uncontrolled hypertension a BP monitor and educational tools (n = 2,550). Three cohorts were included: Those who were given the materials during an office visit, those who were mailed materials and those who requested materials at health fairs. Researchers then used electronic health records to examine office-based BP readings and calculate the change in BP control for each following visit and at the end of the year.

Researchers found that by the third office visit, 66.79% had a BP reading of less than 140 mm Hg systolic/90 mm Hg diastolic and many patients’ medications were able to be reduced.

In addition, 79.03% of participants achieved hypertension control as defined by Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) 2018 standards, and 72.6% achieved hypertension control that matched the American College of Cardiology/AHA guideline.

On average, participants’ sustained change in BP control was 18.3 mm Hg less for systolic BP and 7 mm Hg less for diastolic BP. – by Melissa J. Webb

Reference:

Champion RR, et al. Abstract P351. Presented at: The American Heart Association’s Joint Hypertension Scientific Sessions; Sept. 6-9. 2018; Chicago.

Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.