Teletransmitted monitoring of blood pressure and bilingual nurse counseling-sustained improvements in blood pressure control during 12 months in hypertensive Korean Americans

This paper reports the results of a clinical investigation to determine the sustainability of intervention effects to lower blood pressure (BP) that were obtained through a short-term education via home telemonitoring of BP and regular counseling by bilingual nurses during 1year. A total of 359 middle-aged (40-64years) Korean immigrants completed a 15-month intervention that consisted of 6-week behavioral education followed by home telemonitoring of BP and bilingual nurse telephone counseling for 12months. The final analysis revealed a sharp increase in BP control rates sustained for more than 12months. At baseline, only 30% of the sample achieved BP control (<140/90mmHg). After the initial education period (approximately 3months), 73.3% of the participants had controlled BP levels. The levels of control were maintained and continuously improved during a 12-month follow-up period (83.2%, P<.001). These findings suggest that home telemonitoring of BP and tailored counseling are both useful tools to sustain or improve short-term education effects.