Background: Monitoring blood pressure at 72 hours and 7-10 days post partum in women with hypertensive disorders is recommended to decrease morbidity. However, there are no recommendations as to how to achieve this.
Objective: To compare the effectiveness of text-based blood pressure monitoring to in-person visits for women with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy in the immediate postpartum period.
Methods: Randomised clinical trial among 206 postpartum women with pregnancy-related hypertension diagnosed during the delivery admission between August 2016 and January 2017. Women were randomised to 2 weeks of text-based surveillance using a home blood pressure cuff and previously tested automated platform or usual care blood pressure check at their prenatal clinic 4-6 days following discharge. The primary study outcome was a single recorded blood pressure in the first 10 days post partum. The ability to meet American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) guidelines, defined as having a blood pressure recorded on postpartum days 3-4 and 7-10 was evaluated in the text message group. The study was powered to detect a 1.4-fold increase in a single recorded blood pressure using text messaging. All outcomes were analysed as intention to treat.
Results: 206 women were randomised (103 in each arm). Baseline characteristics were similar. There was a statistically significant increase in a single blood pressure obtained in the texting group in the first 10 days post partum as compared with the office group (92.2% vs 43.7%; adjusted OR 58.2 (16.2-208.1), p<0.001). Eighty-four per cent of patients undergoing text-based surveillance met ACOG criteria for blood pressures at both recommended points.
Conclusions: Text-based monitoring is more effective in obtaining blood pressures and meeting current clinical guidelines in the immediate postdischarge period in women with pregnancy-related hypertension compared with traditional office-based follow-up.
Trial registration number: NCT03185455, Remote Surveillance of Postpartum Hypertension (TextBP), https://clinicaltrials.gov.
Keywords: healthcare quality improvement; obstetrics and gynaecology; patient-centred care.
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