Improving blood pressure control: results of home-based post-acute care interventions.

BACKGROUND: Blood pressure (BP) control remains elusive for many Americans. Although home health nurses are uniquely positioned to help vulnerable individuals achieve BP control, hypertension (HTN) management has not been a high priority in post-acute care.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the effects of two home-based interventions designed to improve BP outcomes among high-risk African-American patients.

DESIGN: Cluster randomized controlled trial.

PARTICIPANTS: A total of 845 newly admitted patients with uncontrolled HTN (JNC7 stages 1 or 2).

INTERVENTIONS: The "basic" intervention delivered key HTN information to clinicians and patients, and a home BP monitor to patients, while the patients received usual post-acute care. The "augmented" intervention provided more intensive and extensive HTN information, monitoring and feedback for 3 months beyond the index home care admission.

MEASURES: Primary: BP control. Secondary: reductions in mmHG SBP and DBP, improvements in proportions improving JNC7 stage or achieving clinically meaningful reductions in SBP and DBP.

METHODS: Multivariate regression models.

KEY RESULTS: The basic intervention produced no significant BP improvements; the augmented intervention significantly improved stage 2 patients' outcomes. Among stage 2 patients, the augmented intervention increased BP control by 8.7 percentage points relative to usual care (8.9% vs. 17.6%; p=0.01), yielded an 8.3 mmHG relative reduction in SBP (p=0.01), and increased the proportion achieving at least a 20 mmHG reduction in SBP by 16.4 percentage points (p=0.01).

CONCLUSION: Among stage 2 patients, a nurse-led intervention providing additional HTN medication review and patient self-management support during the 3-month post-acute care period yielded significant improvements in 3-month BP control, plus improvements in secondary BP outcomes.