title: High Prevalence of Hypertension in a Danish Population Telemedical Home Measurement of Blood Pressure in Citizens Aged 55-64 Years in Holstebro County.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Home blood pressure (HBP) is prognostically superior to office BP (OBP) and similar to ambulatory BP measurements. We determined the prevalence of hypertension using HBP with telemedical data transmission in the municipality of Holstebro, Denmark (57,000 citizens).
  
  
  METHODS
  Using the Civil Registration System, we invited citizens aged 55-64 years to have their OBP and HBP measured using telemedical data transmission. Elevated OBP was defined as ≥140/90mm Hg. HBP was measured 3 times daily on 3 consecutive days with 3 measurements on each occasion. HBP was the mean of all measurements on day 1 and 3, and hypertension was defined as ≥135/85mm Hg.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We included 3,102 citizens who had performed at least 12 HBP measurements during day 2 and 3. Group 1: (n = 1,464, 47%) had both normal OBP and HBP. Group 2: (n = 838, 27%) had both elevated OBP and HBP indicating persistent hypertension. Group 3: (n = 560, 18%) had elevated OBP and normal HBP indicating white coat hypertension (WCH). Group 4: (n = 240, 8%) had normal OBP and elevated HBP indicating masked hypertension (MH). Thus, 1,078 (35%, groups 2 and 4) were untreated or insufficiently treated. Awareness of hypertension was registered in 950 patients (31%) and of these 49% had a normal HBP.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This is the first large-scale study to eliminate completely reporting bias by using telemedical transmission of BP data. One third of citizens in the age group 55-64 years had an abnormally high HBP, and one fourth either had WCH or MH.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  ClinicalTrials.gov identification number: NCT02355392.
authors.affiliation: University Clinic of Nephrology and Hypertension, Department of Medical Research and Medicine, Holstebro Hospital and Aarhus University, Holstebro, Denmark; nikhof@rm.dk.
authors.forename: Nikolai
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hoffmann-Petersen
authors.affiliation: University Clinic of Nephrology and Hypertension, Department of Medical Research and Medicine, Holstebro Hospital and Aarhus University, Holstebro, Denmark;
authors.forename: Torsten
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lauritzen
authors.affiliation: University Clinic of Nephrology and Hypertension, Department of Medical Research and Medicine, Holstebro Hospital and Aarhus University, Holstebro, Denmark;
authors.forename: Jesper Nørgaard
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Bech
authors.affiliation: University Clinic of Nephrology and Hypertension, Department of Medical Research and Medicine, Holstebro Hospital and Aarhus University, Holstebro, Denmark;
authors.forename: Erling Bjerregaard
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: Pedersen
mesh_terms: D017677:Age Distribution; D001794:Blood Pressure; D001795:Blood Pressure Determination / Q000379:methods*; D015897:Comorbidity; D003718:Denmark; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D059468:Masked Hypertension / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D015995:Prevalence; D012042:Registries; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012307:Risk Factors; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000379:methods*; D059466:White Coat Hypertension / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology
keywords: MH; WCH.; control; home blood pressure; hypertension; prevalence; telemedical home blood pressure; telemedicine; treatment