In 2019 high blood pressure was the leading risk factor worldwide, with almost 11 million deaths attributable to it. In the same year in England high blood pressure was the second leading risk factor after smoking accounting for almost 70 thousand deaths; and 8,000 in the East of England.
The BP@home scheme aims to increase the availability and access to home blood pressure monitoring for patients with poorly controlled hypertension. Hypertension is the biggest long-term condition in the UK affecting 1 in 4 adults, half of whom are undiagnosed or their blood pressure is not controlled. For every 100 people treated with anti-hypertensives 1 heart attack is avoided. Regular home blood pressure monitoring across a population of 50,000 patients could prevent up to 300 heart attacks and 477 strokes over three years. Approximately 190,000 Mid and South Essex patients are currently on the hypertension register with an average rate treated to target across Mid and South Essex being 64.76%, indicating the need for further monitoring and reviewing to increase levels of controlled blood pressure.
As of July 2023, over 80,000 patients have monitored their blood pressure at home and fed back their results to their local Practice, however these include those that are not on the hypertension register, and those that have opted to take their BP at home without being identified by a clinical staff member.
The University of Essex (UoE) was commissioned by Mid and South Essex Integrated Care Board (MSE ICB) to provide an independent overview of the BP@Home Programme. Using a mixed-method approach, this report presents the analysis of the data collected through the BP@Home online survey and data collected through 22 one-to-one interviews to a sample of respondents to the online survey.
The MSE ICB and UoE teams worked collaboratively to ensure access to data and participants. UoE has independently conducted the analysis of the data and drawn the conclusion.
Download the evaluation report by clicking the link below.