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Thirty-Minute Office Blood Pressure Monitoring in Primary Health Care
Michiel J. Bos , and colleagues
Background Automated office blood pressure monitoring for a period of 30 minutes (OBP30) has been proposed as an alternative method for assessing sustained hypertension, since it yields almost the same results as daytime ambulatory blood pressure monitoring and is much more convenient. This study compares OBP30 with routine office blood pressure (OBP) readings in primary care and evaluates how OBP30 influences medications prescribed by family doctors.
What This Study Found In-office automated blood pressure monitoring over 30 minutes (OBP30) yields considerably lower blood pressure readings than office blood pressure in all patient groups studied. It also reduces the number of patients who meet the criteria for intensification of antihypertensive medication regimes. The differences between office blood pressure and OBP30 were larger for patients aged 70 years or older. Based on OBP alone, physicians said they would have started or intensified hypertension medication in 79 percent of studied cases, but with the results of OBP30 available, this number was only 25 percent.
Implications
- OBP30 yields lower blood pressure readings than routine OBP in primary care and leads to an important reduction in medication prescriptions.