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Health IT, systems and process innovations
Original article
Two-day home blood pressure monitoring may offer an alternative to costlier methods
  1. Gavin Devereux1,
  2. Daniel Gibney2,
  3. Fiqry Fadhlillah2,
  4. Paul Brown2,
  5. Neil Macey2,
  6. Simon Rudland2
  1. 1 Department of Science and Technology, University of Suffolk, Suffolk, UK
  2. 2 Stowhealth, Suffolk, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Gavin Devereux, Department of Science and Technology,University of Suffolk, Suffolk IP4 1QJ, UK; G.Devereux{at}uos.ac.uk

Abstract

Background Key benefits of home-based blood pressure measurements are the potential to reduce the risk of ‘white coat hypertension’, encouraging patients to take ownership of their condition and be more actively involved in their long-term condition care, and to move work out of the doctor’s office.

Aim To assess whether performing 20 resting blood pressure measurements over a 2-day period would provide a reliable, stable representation of patients’ resting systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Following clinician recommendation, each participant completed the Stowhealth home blood pressure monitoring procedure.

Method One thousand and forty-five participants (mean age 66±13 years, 531 women and 514 men) completed the procedure, of 10 resting measurements per day, for 2 days (20 resting systolic and diastolic blood pressure readings in total). All measurements were made using automated oscillometric monitors.

Results Within-patient coefficient of variation for the entire participant cohort was 8% for systolic blood pressure (cohort mean 141±11 mm Hg), and 8% for diastolic blood pressure (cohort mean 79±6 mm Hg). There were no significant differences between the first and second day, for either systolic (142±1vs 141±1 mm Hg, respectively, p>0.05) or diastolic blood pressures (79±1vs 78±1 mm Hg, respectively, p>0.05 in both cases).

Conclusion The overall duration of home blood pressure monitoring may be able to be reduced to just 48 hours. This method would offer meaningful time saving for patients, and financial and time benefits for doctors and their surgery administration.

  • general practice
  • blood pressure
  • home monitoring

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjinnov-2017-000247

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors GD: guarantor, lead author responsible for data analysis, statistical methodology and writing of the paper. DG, FF, PB: result research and initial data entry. NM, SR: developers of Stowhealth blood pressure protocols, study design, GP clinical input and help with writing the paper.

    • Funding This work was funded through normal practice review processes at Stowhealth and an existing research relationship with the University of Suffolk.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent Detail has been removed from this case description/these case descriptions to ensure anonymity. The editors and reviewers have seen the detailed information available and are satisfied that the information backs up the case the authors are making.

    • Ethics approval This is a service evaluation using anonymised routinely collected data, and as such, specific ethical approval is not required. Ethical approval to publish findings were registered by the Faculty of Health, Science and Technology at the University of Suffolk.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.