THE STATUS OF HOME BLOOD PRESSURE CONTROL 2017-2018 IN SPECIALIST HYPERTENSION CENTERS IN ASIA - RESULTS FROM ASIABP@HOME, THE FIRST STANDARDIZED STUDY USING THE SAME VALIDATED DEVICE AND FOLLOWING THE SAME PROTOCOL IN 11 DIFFERENT ASIAN COUNTRIES AND REGIONS

Abstract

Objectives: A self-HomeBP-guided strategy is an effective, practical approach for managing hypertension. However, there is no standardized cross-sectional evaluation of home BP measurement across Asia. AsiaBP@Home is the first study to evaluate home BP control status simultaneously in 11 countries/regions, utilising the same validated home BP monitoring device and following the same BP measurement schedule.

Methods: Patients with hypertension living in Asia, receiving antihypertensive therapy, were provided BP monitoring devices and instructed to measure their BP twice in the morning and twice at bedtime for at least 7 days in a 15-day period.

Results: In 1443 patients who were attending 15 specialist hypertension centers in Asia, 68.2 % were well-controlled for morning home systolic BP (SBP) < 135 mmHg, and 55.5% were well-controlled for clinic SBP < 140 mmHg. The finding of well-controlled hypertension for both clinic and morning home SBP was the highest (45.9%) among all the 4 classifications and their thresholds for clinic (140 mmHg) and morning home (135 mmHg) SBP. Even with the new 2017AHA/ACC thresholds, 53.6% were well-controlled for morning home SBP. In the Japanese nationwide general practitioner-based home BP study (J-HOP) with baseline data from 2005 to 2012, 46% were well-controlled for morning home SBP by using the conventional thresholds and 31% were well-controlled with the new thresholds.

Conclusion: The finding that home BP status was well controlled in patients attending specialist hypertension centers is the “Hope of Asia”, giving hope that strict morning home BP control outside these centers could perhaps be achieved by transferring the expertise of hypertension management from the hypertension specialists to general practitioners.