Here’s a BP shooter. Isolated single measurement has wrongly classified over 63% of individuals as ‘hypertensive’ with researchers now recommending a minimum three blood pressure (BP)readings in a single visit for a more accurate diagnosis.
This is the finding of a study by researchers at the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, and the Economics and Planning Unit, Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), published recently in the Journal of Human Hypertension .
Common clinical tool
BP measurement is one of the most common clinical practice tools used to determine heart condition as well as predict future heart health-related events.
The study highlights the need for repeated measurements of BP during a clinic or screening visit to reduce inaccurate classification of a patient’s true BP, resulting in wrong diagnosis and unnecessary treatments and its associated costs.
Need for accuracy
Dorairaj Prabhakaran, vice president, Research and Policy, PHFI and one of the main authors of the study said: “There is a need to ensure accuracy in the diagnosis and management of hypertension. It is vital that clinical guidelines recommend uniform evidence-based methods of arriving at the final clinic BP."
"In this young population, based on a single BP measurement, the prevalence of hypertension was 16.5% and when the average of second and third readings were taken the prevalence reduced to 10.1%," Dr. Prabhakaran said.
Huge implications
The study says this large reduction in the number of people needing treatment has huge implications for the individual in terms of avoiding unnecessary treatments. For the health system it is a reduction in later footfalls to the hospitals as well as decreased healthcare costs.
