title: Strict Blood Pressure Control Achieved Using an ICT-Based Home Blood Pressure Monitoring System in a Catastrophically Damaged Area After a Disaster.
abstract: At the time of the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami (March 2011), the authors developed a web-based information and communications technology (ICT)-based blood pressure (BP) monitoring system (the Disaster CArdiovascular Prevention [DCAP] Network) and introduced it in an area that was catastrophically damaged (Minamisanriku town) to help control the survivors' BP. Using this system, home BP (HBP) was monitored and the data were automatically transmitted to a central computer database and to the survivors' attending physicians. The study participants, 341 hypertensive patients, continued to use this system for 4 years after the disaster and all of the obtained HBP readings were analyzed. This DCAP HBP-guided approach helped achieve a decrease in the participants' HBPs (initial average: 151.3±20.0/86.9±10.2 mm Hg to 120.2±12.1/70.8±10.2 mm Hg) over the 4 years. In addition, the amplitude of seasonal BP variation was suppressed and the duration from the summer lowest HBP values to the winter peak HBP values was gradually prolonged. This ICT-based approach was useful to achieve strict HBP control and minimize the seasonal BP variation even in a catastrophically damaged area during a 4-year period after the disaster, suggesting that this approach could be a routine way to monitor BP in the community.
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine, Jichi Medical University School of Medicine, Shimotsuke, Tochigi, Japan.|Minamisanriku Hospital, Minami-sanriku, Motoyoshi-gun, Miyagi, Japan.
authors.forename: Masafumi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nishizawa
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine, Jichi Medical University School of Medicine, Shimotsuke, Tochigi, Japan.
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hoshide
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine, Jichi Medical University School of Medicine, Shimotsuke, Tochigi, Japan.
authors.forename: Yukie
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Okawara
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine, Jichi Medical University School of Medicine, Shimotsuke, Tochigi, Japan.|Hyogo Prefectural Awaji Medical Center, Shioya, Sumoto-shi, Hyogo, Japan.
authors.forename: Takefumi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Matsuo
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine, Jichi Medical University School of Medicine, Shimotsuke, Tochigi, Japan.
authors.forename: Kazuomi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kario
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D018660:Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory / Q000379:methods*; D004190:Disasters; D019468:Disease Management; D055866:Earthquakes; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000503:physiopathology*; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D057192:Tsunamis; D014584:User-Computer Interface