Research Activities, November 2012: Chronic Disease: Self-monitoring of blood pressure along with nurse counseling leads to greater blood pressure control

Research Activities, November 2012: Chronic Disease: Self-monitoring of blood pressure along with nurse counseling leads to greater blood pressure control

Self-monitoring of blood pressure along with nurse counseling leads to greater blood pressure control

High blood pressure (HBP) remains a major public health concern both in the United States and worldwide. Since managing HBP is often a lifetime effort, it is important to find effective ways to improve both self-care skills and motivations for individuals with HBP. A community-based lifestyle modification program using telephone-transmitted self-monitoring BP technology and nurse-led counseling more than doubled the percentage of people maintaining BP control (from 30 to 73 percent) during an initial 3-month education period. This control was sustained and even improved during a 12-month followup period, according to a new study. In addition, the more-counseled group improved their BP and psychosocial outcomes more than the less-counseled group. The authors point out that maintaining optimal BP over time directly leads to declines in stroke and coronary artery disease incidence and mortality.
The study population consisted of 359 middle-aged (40–64 years) Korean immigrants who completed a 15-month intervention. The intervention consisted of 6 weeks of behavioral education followed by home telemonitoring of BP and bilingual nurse telephone counseling for 12 months. This study was supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (HS13160).
See "Teletransmitted monitoring of blood pressure and bilingual nurse counseling-sustained improvements in blood pressure control during 12 months in hypertensive Korean Americans" by Miyong T. Kim, PhD, Hae-Ra Han, PhD, Haley Hedlin, PhD, and others in the Journal of Clinical Hypertension 13, pp. 605-612, 2011.

— MWS