Home blood pressure monitoring for hypertension best combined with intensive support
Home blood pressure monitoring is currently recommended for people with high blood pressure so health professionals can make necessary adjustments to treatment. Previous research has shown that self-monitoring reduces clinic blood pressure by a small but statistically significant amount, but how best to implement it and for which patients it might be most useful remain unclear. In this new study, researchers searched the existing medical literature for randomized trials that included self-monitoring of blood pressure in people with high blood pressure . They then used individual patient data from 25 studies, with up to 10,487 patients in total, to evaluate the effect of self-monitoring on blood pressure levels. Overall, self-monitoring was associated with a clinic measurement of systolic blood pressure that was reduced by 3.2 mmHg (95% confidence interval [CI] -4.9 to -1.6) compared to usual care at 12 months. The effect, however, was strongly influenced by the intensity of prof...