Home-Based Care for Hypertension – Center for Health Decision Science

CHDS faculty Thomas Gaziano, Shafika Abrahams-Gessel, and colleagues published results of the IMPACT-BP clinical trial indicating that reliable home-based hypertension care in rural South Africa yielded significant reduction in systolic blood pressure at six months compared to standard clinic-based care. Trial results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine and announced by Gaziano during the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress held in Madrid, Spain.

In low-resource settings, including South Africa, hypertension is a common health concern that is a primary risk factor for stroke and heart disease. Structural barriers such as overcrowded clinics, limited equipment, and transportation contribute to low access to care.

The research team conducted an open-label, randomized, controlled trial, in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa with a cohort of adults with hypertension, each assigned to home-based care with varying medical strategies, consisting of either (1) patient monitoring of blood pressure; (2) home visits from a community health worker (CHW) for data collection and medication delivery and remote nurse-led decision making supported by a mobile application (CHW group); (3) enhanced home-based care, which was the same intervention as (2) but with blood-pressure machines transmitting readings automatically (enhanced CHW group); (4) or standard care with clinic-based management (standard-care group).

Learn more: Read the full publication, Home-Based Care for Hypertension in Rural South Africa
Learn more: Read the press release, Home-Based Hypertension Care is Effective in Rural South Africa
Learn more: Read about IMPACT-BP