Non-Targeted Self-Measurement of Blood Pressure: Association with Self-Medication, Unscheduled Emergency Visits and Anxiety

Abstract

Background and Objective: The routine practice of self-medication of blood pressure (BP) not oriented with pulse devices may not be precisely useful in the control of BP and can lead the patient to self-medicate in error. Thus, we need to evaluate the non-oriented self-assessment of BP in real-life circumstances in hypertensive patients. The objective of this study was to evaluate in hypertensive patients the association of BP self-measurement with its control, as well as the presence of anxiety disorders, the occurrence of unscheduled visits to the emergency room, and self-medication. Materials and Methods: An observational study was carried out with 1000 hypertensive volunteers (age: 61.0 ± 12.5). Using a questionnaire, sociodemographic and clinical data on BP control were collected. Anxiety was assessed by the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). Results: The group that performed non-oriented self-measurement of BP, showed that they had higher frequencies of self-medication (57.9%, p p p p Conclusion: The practice of non-oriented self-assessment of BP was associated with negative factors such as high levels of anxiety and higher frequencies of self-medication and unscheduled emergency visits.

Keywords

• systemic arterial hypertension
• self-measurement
• self-medication
• anxiety