Significant improvements in BP control and increased home BP monitoring occurred during the pandemic versus prepandemic period
By Lori Solomon HealthDay Reporter
THURSDAY, March 30, 2023 (HealthDay News) — A remote clinical management program successfully delivered significant improvements in blood pressure (BP) control during the pandemic, according to a study published online March 13 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
Simin Gharib Lee, M.D., from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and colleagues assessed the pandemic’s impact on an existing remote hypertension management program’s effectiveness and adaptability. The analysis included 1,256 patients (605 enrolled in the six months before the pandemic shutdown in March 2020 and 651 in the six months after).
The researchers found that overall, among enrolled patients with sustained hypertension, 51.1 percent reached BP goals. Rates of achieving goal BP improved to 94.6 percent during the pandemic, from 75.8 percent prepandemic. During the pandemic, mean baseline home BP was 141.7/81.9 mm Hg versus 139.8/82.2 prepandemic, and it fell ~16/9 mm Hg in both periods. During the pandemic, maintenance was achieved earlier (median 11.8 versus 19.6 weeks). More frequent monthly calls (8.2 versus 3.1) and more monthly home BP recordings per patient (32.4 versus 18.9) were seen during the pandemic versus the prepandemic period.
“A remote clinical management program was successfully adapted and delivered significant improvements in BP control and increased home BP monitoring despite a nationally observed disruption of traditional hypertension care,” the authors write. “Such programs have the potential to transform hypertension management and care delivery.”
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