Self-measured BP control initiative lowers communities’ rates of uncontrolled hypertension
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Key takeaways:
- Community health centers participating in an initiative successfully improved BP control within their respective communities.
- A speaker discussed centers’ tactics to improve hypertension control.
Additional training and technical assistance to improve self-measured BP in communities with high rates of uncontrolled hypertension successfully increased BP control from 2020 to 2022, a speaker reported.
During a presentation at the American Heart Association Hypertension Scientific Sessions, Alison P. Smith, MPH, RN, consultant to the AHA and program director of Target: BP for the AHA and AMA, discussed how three community health care centers in Louisiana, Arizona and California utilized these tools and implemented tactics to successfully improve BP control within their respective communities.
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“Self-measured blood pressure is a tool best used in partnership with patients and health care professionals,” Smith said in a press release. “So far, the community health centers that participated with NHCI have achieved a 12.3% increase in blood pressure control from 2020 to 2022.”
The AHA National Hypertension Control Initiative (NHCI) was set up to provide training and technical assistance to Health Resources and Services Administration-funded community health centers in communities with BP control rates less than 58.9% in 2019, according to the presentation.
BP control was defined as BP less than 140/90 mm Hg.
The NHCI provided community health centers with an assistance training curriculum, evidence-based tools (Target: BP and MAP framework) and a BP measurement policy and treatment algorithm to assist in the implementation of community-based self-measured BP. Individual community health centers used multidisciplinary and culturally relevant approaches tailored to reflect organizational capacities and characteristics of their patients.
The SWLA Center for Health Services in Louisiana established a team-based care model that emphasized a standardized process, including a self-measured BP onboarding protocol and a BP treatment algorithm, according to the presentation.
The SWLA Center for Health Services increased BP control among its patients from 44% to 69% in 2022, using this strategy.
Smith reported that Canyonlands Healthcare in Arizona coupled systematic in-clinic practices with American Indian/Alaska Native community health workers to improve reach among patients from the Navajo Nation.
Among community members of the Navajo Nation with uncontrolled BP at baseline who were paired with an American Indian/Alaska Native community health care worker, Canyonlands Healthcare’s strategy increased BP control from 53% in 2021 to 70% in 2023.
Additionally, Via Care Community Health Center in California developed a collaborative practice model with clinical pharmacists and clinicians for systematic medication management, self-monitored BP, lifestyle education and team-based visits, according to the presentation.
With this strategy, BP control among patents at Via Care Community Health Center increased from 55% in 2021 to 74% in 2022, Smith reported.
“The NHCI was able to apply evidence-based hypertension care in ways that were the most relevant to the populations served and within their unique competencies and capacities,” Eduardo J. Sanchez, MD, MPH, FAHA, FAAFP, chief medical officer for prevention at the AHA, said in the release. “The practice changes and improvements in patient outcomes that many centers achieved were notable and inform what is possible when we are systematic in our efforts to improve the nation’s blood pressure control, which may ultimately lead to the prevention of heart attacks, strokes and other life-threatening health consequences.”
Reference:
- Community-based, self-measured blood pressure control programs helped at-risk patients. https://newsroom.heart.org/news/community-based-self-measured-blood-pressure-control-programs-helped-at-risk-patients. Published Sep. 7, 2023. Accessed Sep. 7, 2023.
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Smith A, et al. Abstract 753. Presented at: American Heart Association Hypertension Scientific Sessions; Sept. 7-10, 2023; Boston.
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