Key result
Blood pressure self-monitoring empowers patients but risks anxiety and confusion without proper guidance and support.
Why the study?
Self-monitoring of blood pressure is a key strategy in managing hypertension but may be challenging and burdensome for patients.
What are the perspectives and experiences of patients with hypertension regarding self-monitoring of blood pressure?
Systematic Review (n=872)
What are the perspectives and experiences of patients with hypertension regarding self-monitoring of blood pressure?
While home blood pressure monitoring empowers patients and offers reassurance, inadequate knowledge and device-related burdens highlight a critical need for structured patient education and technical support.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Patient education and device support are needed to reduce self-monitoring burdens; extends qualitative synthesis on hypertension patient experiences.
BACKGROUND: Self-monitoring of blood pressure is a key strategy in managing hypertension but may be challenging and burdensome for patients. The aim of the study was to describe the perspectives and experiences of self-monitoring of blood pressure in patients with hypertension. METHODS: MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, and CINAHL were searched from database inception to March 2022. We used thematic synthesis to analyze the data. RESULTS: Thirty-five studies involving 872 patients aged 18-95 years were included. Four themes were identified: enabling autonomy and empowerment of own health (allowing access to comprehensive and accurate data, bolstering motivation for lifestyle changes, encouraging diligence in medication taking, gaining interest in self-management, and increasing awareness of health status); providing reassurance and convenience (instilling a sense of security, readiness for troubleshooting, and reducing the frequency of clinical appointments); triggering confusion and stress (anxiety and panic over "bad" numbers, constant reminder of illness identity, disregarded by clinicians, lack of confidence in interpreting and responding to results, redundancy of continuous monitoring, and uncertainties around targets and frequency of measures, concerns of unreliability); financial and operational burden of device (vulnerability preventing use, or unsustainable cost). CONCLUSIONS: Inadequate knowledge about the benefits of lowering blood pressure, home blood pressure monitoring, blood pressure goals, and interpretation of blood pressure values, limited access to home blood pressure monitoring devices, and psychological burden with home blood pressure monitoring limit home blood pressure monitoring.
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Natale et al. (2023) conducted a systematic review in Hypertension (n=872). Self-monitoring of blood pressure was evaluated on Perspectives and experiences of self-monitoring of blood pressure (qualitative themes). Self-monitoring of blood pressure empowers patients and provides reassurance, but can also trigger confusion, stress, and financial burden due to inadequate knowledge and limited device access.
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