Examining the Feasibility of a Simple Intervention to Improve Blood Pressure Control for Primary Care Patients

Blood pressure control remains a challenge despite the availability of effective antihypertensive agents.

This pilot study explored the feasibility of a simple, low-resource intervention to improve blood pressure control.

A convenience sample was drawn of 56 patients with hypertension from a primary care clinic. A preintervention-postintervention delivered by medical assistants involved prompts to providers to address blood pressure control with a visual aid indicating patients' current and target blood pressure in the context of a traffic light.

Patients showed a significant reduction in mean systolic blood pressure (preintervention, 141.5 mm Hg, vs postintervention, 133.0 mm Hg; P = .002) and mean diastolic blood pressure (preintervention, 83.4 mm Hg, vs postintervention, 80.4 mm Hg; P = .049).

In this pilot study, we established the feasibility of a brief, simple intervention to improve blood pressure control implemented by existing primary care practice clinical support staff, and preliminary data show that it can be effective in improving blood pressure control.