Status of home blood pressure measurement in treated hypertensive patients. Results of a survey from two cities in Korea

Abstract

Knowledge of the status of real-world home blood pressure (BP) measurements is crucial for establishing policies promoting hypertension treatment through home BP monitoring. However, only a few studies have investigated the status of home BP measurements in real-world settings. This study investigated the practice of Korean patients in measuring BP at home. This study recruited participants aged ≥20 years who were taking antihypertensives and conducted a questionnaire-based survey on home BP measurements. Of 701 participants recruited between August 2018 and April 2020, 673 were included in the analysis. Of these, 359 (53.3%) possessed home BP measurement devices. The devices used by 184 (51.3%) participants were validated, 110 (30.6%) were nonvalidated, and 65 (18.1%) had an unknown validation status. Only 18 patients (5.0%) with home BP devices were aware of the validation tests for home BP measurement devices. Of the 673 participants, 278 (41.3%) measured BP at home (77.4% of the patients owned home BP measurement devices). Among them, at least 74 (26.6%) performed proper measurements (at least once a month, at least twice a day or twice at a time, after at least 1 minute of rest, with at least a 1-min interval between each measurement, and 30 min after drinking coffee, exercising, or smoking). In conclusion, our community-based survey in the nonpresentive Korean population revealed a low rate of home BP measurement, a high rate of using nonvalidated devices, and a high rate of inappropriate measurements, suggesting that more efforts toward patient education regarding home BP measurements are needed.