Blood pressure reduction by gender and menopause status among hypertensive participants of a mobile health cardiovascular risk self-management program

Abstract

Background

Despite being the leading cause of death for women in the United States, cardiovascular disease (CVD) in this population remains underrecognized, understudied, underdiagnosed, and undertreated. CVD risk is particularly pronounced in postmenopausal women. The current study evaluates the effectiveness of an mHealth cardiovascular risk self-management program in improving blood pressure (BP) control among women, especially during and after the onset of menopause.

Methods

We used real-world data from hypertensive users of a mobile health (mHealth) application for CVD risk self-management to evaluate sex differences in treatment responses. We further compared BP reductions by menopause status for a subset of users whose menopause status was known.

Results

A total of 48,121 participants were included in the analysis (mean age: 51.8 ± 11.0 years, 55.3 % women, mean baseline systolic BP: 135.5 ± 17.3 mmHg, mean baseline diastolic BP: 85.3 ± 11.6 mmHg). The primary analysis found that women users showed a larger reduction in BP compared to men (p < 0.05). Although perimenopausal and postmenopausal women started with higher baseline BP than premenopausal women (p < 0.001), all groups showed comparable reductions in systolic BP.

Conclusion

There were clinically meaningful reductions in BP among participants of an mHealth app, with women showing greater BP reductions than men. Findings suggest that targeted, sex-specific health information and digital coaching can be effective in reducing cardiovascular risk among women during and after menopause.