Home BP Monitoring Using a Telemonitoring System is Effective for Controlling BP in a Remote Island in Japan

The purpose of this study was to assess whether a home blood pressure (HBP) telemonitoring system could improve BP control and overcome the problems of HBP monitoring in a remote location. The authors enrolled 60 subjects and randomized them to either a Telemonitoring group or a Control group. The outcomes were changes in HBP level, adherence to HBP monitoring, and visual analog scale (VAS; score 0-100) as a measure of the motivation to perform HBP measurements. The reductions in morning systolic BP (-5.5±0.9 mm Hg vs 0.7±0.7 mm Hg, P<.001) and evening systolic BP (-4.6±1.0 mm Hg vs 1.0±1.1 mm Hg, P<.001) and the change in VAS (12.8±3.3 vs -1.6±2.2, P=.001) were significantly greater in the Telemonitoring group than in the Control group. The measure of the adherence to HBP monitoring tended to be better (P=.064) in the Telemonitoring group than in the Control group. These results indicate that an HBP telemonitoring system would be a beneficial healthcare measure in remote geographical locations.