Open AccessStrict Blood Pressure Control Achieved Using an ICT ‐Based Home Blood Pressure Monitoring System in a Catastrophically Damaged Area After a Disaster
Author(s) -
Nishizawa Masafumi,
Hoshide Satoshi,
Okawara Yukie,
Matsuo Takefumi,
Kario Kazuomi
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
the journal of clinical hypertension
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.909
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1751-7176
pISSN - 1524-6175
DOI - 10.1111/jch.12864
Subject(s) - medicine , blood pressure , emergency medicine , medical emergency , intensive care medicine
At the time of the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami (March 2011), the authors developed a web‐based information and communications technology ( ICT )–based blood pressure ( BP ) monitoring system (the Disaster CA rdiovascular Prevention [ DCAP ] Network) and introduced it in an area that was catastrophically damaged (Minamisanriku town) to help control the survivors' BP . Using this system, home BP ( HBP ) was monitored and the data were automatically transmitted to a central computer database and to the survivors' attending physicians. The study participants, 341 hypertensive patients, continued to use this system for 4 years after the disaster and all of the obtained HBP readings were analyzed. This DCAP HBP ‐guided approach helped achieve a decrease in the participants' HBP s (initial average: 151.3±20.0/86.9±10.2 mm Hg to 120.2±12.1/70.8±10.2 mm Hg) over the 4 years. In addition, the amplitude of seasonal BP variation was suppressed and the duration from the summer lowest HBP values to the winter peak HBP values was gradually prolonged. This ICT ‐based approach was useful to achieve strict H BP control and minimize the seasonal BP variation even in a catastrophically damaged area during a 4‐year period after the disaster, suggesting that this approach could be a routine way to monitor BP in the community.