1. Exploring the patient experience of remote hypertension management in Scotland during COVID-19: a qualitative study.
- Author
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Mchale S, Paterson M, Pearsons A, Neubeck L, Atherton I, Guthrie B, McKinstry B, and Hanley J
- Subjects
- Male, Humans, Female, Pandemics, State Medicine, Scotland, Patient Outcome Assessment, Telemedicine methods, COVID-19, Hypertension drug therapy
- Abstract
Objectives: The aim of this study was to understand how patients experienced hypertension management, with or without blood pressure (BP) telemonitoring, during the COVID-19 pandemic., Design, Methods, Participants and Setting: This qualitative study conducted between April and November 2022 consisted of 43 semistructured telephone interviews (23 men and 20 women) from 6 primary care practices in one area of Scotland., Results: From the views of 25 participants with experience of using the Connect Me telemonitoring service and 18 participants without such experience, 5 themes were developed. These were: (1) navigating access to services. There were challenges to gaining timely and/or in-person access to services and a reluctance to attend clinical settings because participants were aware of their increased risk of contracting the COVID-19 virus. (2) Adapting National Health Service services. All six practices had adapted care provision in response to potential COVID-19 transmission; however, these adaptations disrupted routine management of in-person primary care hypertension, diabetes and/or asthma checks. (3) Telemonitoring feedback. Telemonitoring reduced the need to attend in-person primary care practices and supported access to remote healthcare monitoring and feedback. (4) Self-management. Many non-telemonitoring participants were motivated to use self-management strategies to track their BP using home monitoring equipment. Also, participants were empowered to self-manage lifestyle and hypertension medication. (5) Experience of having COVID-19. Some participants contracting the COVID-19 virus experienced an immediate increase in their BP while a few experienced ongoing increased BP readings., Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted routine in-person care for patients with hypertension. Both telemonitoring and some non-telemonitoring patients were motivated to self-manage hypertension, including self-adjusting medication; however, only those with access to telemonitoring had increased access to hypertension monitoring and feedback. BP telemonitoring permitted routine care to continue for participants in this study and may offer a service useful in pandemic proofing hypertension healthcare in the future., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.) more...
- Published
- 2023
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