Only 48% of people aged 50 to 80 who take blood pressure medications or have conditions affected by high blood pressure regularly check their blood pressure at home or elsewhere. A new study has found something.
Slightly more people said their health care provider had recommended such checks, but still only 62%. A poll respondent whose health care provider advised her to check her blood pressure at home was 3.5 times more likely to do so than those who did not remember receiving such an offer.
This finding highlights the importance of investigating why at-risk patients do not have their blood pressure checked and why health care providers do not recommend blood pressure checking. It’s also important to find ways to encourage more people with these health conditions to check their blood pressure. Regularly. This could play an important role in prolonging patient life and maintaining heart and brain health, the study authors said.
Previous studies have shown that regular home monitoring helps control blood pressure, and better control means a lower risk of death. of cardiovascular events, including stroke and heart attack; and of cognitive impairment and dementia.
The findings are published at JAMA Network Open by a team at Michigan Medicine, an academic medical center at the University of Michigan. The data comes from a national poll on healthy aging and is based on a report published last year.
Based at the UM Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation and supported by Michigan Medicine and AARP, the poll surveyed adults aged 50 to 80 on chronic health conditions, out-of-office blood pressure monitoring, blood pressure We asked about interactions with health care providers regarding Study authors Mellanie V. Springer, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Neurology, Michigan Medical School, and Deborah Levine, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Internal Medicine, worked with the NPHA team to develop the questionnaire questions and analyze the findings.
Data from the new paper show that people who take medication to control blood pressure or have a history of chronic medical conditions that require blood pressure control, specifically stroke, coronary heart disease, or congestive heart failure. from 1,247 respondents who answered , diabetes, chronic kidney disease or hypertension.
Of those, 55% said they own a blood pressure monitor, but some say they have never used one. Among active users, there was wide variability in how often they checked their pressure, and only about half said they shared their measurements with their healthcare provider. But those who owned a monitor were more than 10 times more likely to have their blood pressure checked outside a medical facility than those who didn’t.
The authors note that blood pressure monitoring is associated with lower blood pressure and is cost-effective. They say the results suggest that protocols should be developed to educate patients about the importance of self-monitoring blood pressure and sharing readings with clinicians.
