BACKGROUND
Control of hypertension has shown a decrease in blood pressure compared to usual care
OBJECTIVE
The Horoscope trial aimed to assess the efficacy of home blood pressure (BP) telemonitoring (TLM) in controlling BP reduction in hypertensive patients compared with usual care.
METHODS
This is a multi-center, prospective randomized, parallel-group trial comparing TLM with usual care during a period of 6 months in patients with hypertension.
RESULTS
We included 525 patients randomly assigned in a 1-1 ratio to telemonitoring (TLM group ; n =260) or usual care (control group ; n=265). After 6 months of follow up, mean values of 24-hour systolic and diastolic blood pressure decreased in both TLM and control groups. The mean decrease was significantly greater in the TLM g roup vs control group ( −3.29 mmHg Vs −1.19; p=0.009) and (−2.9 mmHg Vs ,−0.07; p=0.002) for systolic and diastolic blood pressure, respectively.
CONCLUSIONS
This study shows that TLM results in significant BP reduction compared to usual care in a Tunisian population of patients with hypertension. Our findings highlight the importance of integrating telemedicine in the management of hypertensive patients ; it has the potential to improve the quality of the delivered care and to prevent cardiovascular consequences of uncontrolled BP.
CLINICALTRIAL
The study was approved by the Ethics committee of Monastir Medical University and is registered at Clinicaltrials.gov registry (NCT04607239).