Home blood pressure control and prescribing patterns of anti-hypertensive medications in a home blood pressure-based hypertension-specialized clinic in Japan: a sub-analysis of the Ohasama study

Although the benefits of anti-hypertensive treatment are well known, the proportion of hypertensive patients with controlled blood pressure (BP) remains suboptimal. The present study aimed to compare BP control conditions in a hypertension-specialized clinic and non-hypertension-specialized clinics. This cross-sectional study used data from 379 treated patients who measured home BP in the Ohasama study between 2016 and 2019 (men: 43.0%, age: 71.6 years). Of those, 172 patients were managed at the hypertension-specialized clinic where physicians distributed home BP devices to each patient, evaluated the home BP data, and adjusted medications to maintain home BP values according to the recent Japanese guidelines. When we set morning home systolic/diastolic BP of <135/ < 85 mmHg as controlled BP, 93.6% of patients fulfilled the controlled home BP range, compared to 43.0% in non-specialized clinics (n = 207). The proportion of the patients with home morning BP < 125/ < 75 mmHg was 73.3% in the hypertension-specialized clinic and 20.8% in the non-hypertension-specialized clinics. Hypertension-specialized clinics prescribed three or more anti-hypertensive drug classes to 41.9% of patients, compared to 15.2% in non-specialized clinics. In the hypertension-specialized clinic, angiotensin II receptor blockers were most commonly prescribed (86.6%), followed by dihydropyridine calcium channel blockers (77.9%), thiazide (including thiazide-like) diuretics (30.2%), mineralocorticoid receptor blockers (23.8%), and beta- and alpha-beta blockers (10.5%). In conclusion, the proportion of patients with controlled home BP was excellent in the hypertension-specialized clinic. Home BP-based hypertension practices, as recommended in the current Japanese guidelines, may be the key to achieving sufficient BP control.