The choice of home blood pressure result reporting method is essential: Results mailed to physicians did not improve hypertension control compared with ordinary office-based blood pressure treatment

Abstract

Effective antihypertensive care is not possible without regular and reliable blood pressure measurements. The use of blood pressure home measurement has increased a lot during the last years. Various methods have been used in communication between the patients and physicians. In a randomized study we compared traditional office-based hypertension treatment protocol (n=68) to the home-based blood pressure measurement protocol (n=89) in which the patient mailed their home-measured BP diary in a letter to the office of their physician. The studied home-based antihypertensive care system was not more effective than the ordinary office-based treatment. The results highlight the importance of continuous home measurement data interpretation by the physician. The system based on mailing the results to the physician office does not seem to be a suitable method in communication between the patient and the physician. Online or other telemedicine-aided means of communication might yield better antihypertensive control.

Key Words::

• Antihypertensive control
• blood pressure
• home blood pressure measurement

Acknowledgements

This study was financially supported by AstraZeneca Oy. We wish to thank all the general practitioners who participated in the study.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.