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

Abstract

AbstractKnowledge 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.