High blood pressure, or hypertension, is a common health issue. If left untreated, it can lead to serious health problems like heart attacks and strokes.
To diagnose and monitor hypertension, doctors often take blood pressure readings in a clinic. However, a new study suggests that measurements taken at home might actually be more accurate.
This study was conducted by researchers from Kaiser Permanente, a healthcare organization. They ran the study from 2017 to 2019 at 12 of their primary care centers in Western Washington.
The researchers looked at 510 adults who were at high risk of developing high blood pressure. They divided these people into three groups.
Each group measured their blood pressure in a different way: in a clinic, at home, or at a kiosk in a medical clinic or pharmacy.
To check the accuracy of these measurements, each person also had their blood pressure monitored continuously for 24 hours.
This is known as ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM), and it’s considered the gold standard for diagnosing high blood pressure.
The results of the study showed that the blood pressure readings taken at home were very similar to the ABPM results.
However, the readings taken in the clinic were significantly lower, leading to an underdiagnosis of hypertension in more than half of the people in the study. The kiosk readings were higher than the ABPM results, which could lead to overdiagnosis.
These findings could have big implications for how we diagnose and monitor high blood pressure.
Despite guidelines recommending ABPM or home monitoring for diagnosing hypertension, many healthcare providers still rely on in-clinic measurements. This study could help change that practice.
The researchers also found that people preferred taking their blood pressure at home, which supports the idea of home monitoring.
However, further studies are needed to confirm these results and to understand the best ways to use home monitoring.
This study was published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
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