BP Self-Care an Effective Management Option

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that nearly 1 in 3 U.S. adults have high blood pressure (hypertension; 140/90 mm Hg or higher), but only about half have it adequately controlled. Richard McManus, from the University of Oxford (United Kingdom), and colleagues enrolled 552 patients, 35 years old and older, with a history of stroke, coronary heart disease, diabetes, or chronic kidney disease and with baseline blood pressure of at least 130/80 mm Hg being treated at 59 UK primary care practices, in a study that followed the subjects for one year.  Roughly half received usual hypertension care (control group) , consisting of seeing their health care clinician for routine blood pressure measurement and adjustment of medication if necessary; the others performed self-care, involving self-monitoring of blood pressure combined with an individualized self-titration algorithm.  Whereas the mean baseline was 143.5/80.2 mm Hg in the self-care group, as compared to 144.2/79.9 mm Hg in the control group, at 12 months, the mean was 128.6/73.6 mm Hg in the intervention group and 138.2/76.4 mm Hg in the control group.  Citing “a difference of 8.8 mm Hg for systolic and 3.1 mm Hg for diastolic blood pressure between groups,” the study authors submit that: “Among patients with hypertension at high risk of cardiovascular disease, self-monitoring with self-titration of antihypertensive medication compared with usual care resulted in lower systolic blood pressure at 12 months.”