Prevalence of home blood pressure measurement among selected hypertensive patients: results of a multicenter survey from six hospital outpatient hypertension clinics in Italy.

AIM: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of home blood pressure (BP) measurement, the type of devices and accuracy in a large sample of hypertensive patients referred to hospital outpatient hypertension clinics.
METHODS: Eight hundred and fifty-five consecutive treated hypertensive patients who attended six specialized centers during a period of 4 months were included. They underwent the following procedures: (i) detailed medical interview by a structured questionnaire; (ii) physical examination; (iii) standard 12-lead electrocardiogram; (iv) BP measurements taken by a validated mercury sphygmomanometer and patient's devices.
RESULTS: A total of 640 (74.7%) of 855 patients were regularly performing home BP measurement. These patients were on average younger than those not practising it (58 vs 60 years, p<0.01); men were more numerous than women (58 vs 44%, p=0.03) and had higher educational level. Electronic arm-cuff instruments were the most frequently used devices (58%) followed by wrist devices (19%) and mercury or aneroid sphygmomanometers (23%). Significant correlations were found between BPs measured by validated mercury sphygmomanometers and patients' devices [r=0.85, p<0.0001 for systolic BP (SBP) and r=0.78, p<0.0001 for diastolic BP (DBP)]. Differences 5 mmHg in SBP or DBP were found in 50 and 60% of patients, respectively.
CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that: (i) home BP measurement is performed by a majority of treated hypertensives seen in specialized centers; (ii) male gender, age and educational level seem to influence the adoption of home BP monitoring; (iii) electronic arm-cuff devices are the most used instruments; (iv) a notable fraction of patient's devices do not meet the accuracy criteria recommended by US Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation.