Knowledge, practice of BP measurement inadequate among health professionals

Health professionals appear to have adequate perception of blood pressure measurement (BPM) but have suboptimal knowledge and practice, results of a scoping review have shown.

“Education is still needed to improve knowledge and practice,” the investigators said. “Future efforts should focus on improving what we know and what we do when measuring BP.”

This study used an Arksey and O’Malley methodological framework. The investigators identified keywords and extracted studies up to April 2019 using Cinahl and Medline. Studies were classified as positive for knowledge, perception, and practice if more than 50 percent of the reported responses were favourable, and negative otherwise. For specific results that were not reported, the author’s conclusions were used to classify.

Of the 72 studies identified, 25 were home BPM, 14 ambulatory BPM, two automated BPM, and 40 office BPM. For knowledge of BPM techniques, the number of negative studies were greater for home (40 percent) and office BPM (68 percent) and lower for ambulatory BPM (14 percent).

For perception on the usefulness of BPM methods in hypertension management, the percentage of negative studies were lower for home (20 percent) and ambulatory BPM (7 percent). For practice, the number of negative studies with regard to the implementation of hypertension guidelines were higher for home (48 percent), ambulatory (71 percent), office (73 percent), and automated BPM (50 percent).

“Guideline-concordant performance of accurate BPM, whether the modality is home, ambulatory, automated, or office, is dependent on proper technique,” the investigators said. “Knowledge, perception, and practice of health professionals for BPM is crucial.”