<\/p>\nHome blood pressure\u00a0monitoring\u00a0together with health coaching were part of a team-based approach to lower high blood pressure.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Prostock-studio \/ Shutterstock <\/p>\n
<\/a> <\/p>\n
Uncontrolled hypertension, or high blood pressure,\u00a0is the\u00a0primary\u00a0cause of\u00a0heart disease and stroke\u00a0in the U.S. It\u00a0is more prevalent in low-income populations.\u00a0Hypertension develops when the force of\u00a0the blood pushing against the walls of arteries\u00a0becomes too high. This puts more pressure on the heart and the arterial walls and increases a person\u2019s risk for developing cardiovascular disease.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Studies have found that integrated health care systems\u00a0can\u00a0help patients lower\u00a0their\u00a0blood pressure\u00a0by using\u00a0multifaceted\u00a0interventions.\u00a0But low-income patients are often treated in settings with limited resources.\u00a0Little is known about whether the studied approaches are effective in these types of settings.\u00a0<\/p>\n
An NIH-funded research team led by Dr. Katherine Mills of Tulane University tested strategies for high blood pressure control among low-income people\u00a0age 40 or older. The study examined whether an intensive treatment approach could lower blood pressure. It also aimed to learn how the approach could be successfully rolled out in real-world primary care clinics. The team recruited more than 1,200 patients with uncontrolled hypertension at\u00a036\u00a0Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) in Louisiana and Mississippi. The clinics were randomly assigned to treat patients with either standard care or a multifaceted strategy for blood pressure control.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
About half of the participants received the multifaceted strategy. This team-based care approach included intensive\u00a0blood pressure\u00a0tracking\u00a0and feedback, health coaching\u00a0on lifestyle changes and medication adherence, and home blood pressure monitoring.\u00a0The other half of participants served as a control group. They received enhanced usual care, in which doctors were educated about clinical guidelines for hypertension. The results were published in the\u00a0New England Journal of Medicine\u00a0on April 8, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The research team followed the participants for 18 months. Their goals were to reduce the patients\u2019 systolic blood pressure and increase adherence to the treatment program. Systolic pressure is the upper number in a blood pressure reading. It measures the force\u00a0of the blood flow when blood is pumped out of the heart. Normal blood pressure is less than 120 systolic pressure\u00a0and\u00a0less than 80 diastolic\u00a0pressure\u00a0(the lower number).\u00a0Blood pressure is high when\u00a0there are\u00a0consistent systolic readings of 130 mm Hg or higher, or diastolic readings of 80 mm Hg or higher.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The researchers found that both groups had a reduction in systolic pressure, but the multifaceted intervention group had a more significant decrease. The average declined by 9.1 mm Hg for the control group and 15.5 mm Hg for the multifaceted group. Those in the multifaceted group also more closely followed their program.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A small subset of patients from each group saw their systolic pressure drop to less than 120 mm Hg. A larger proportion\u2014almost half of the experimental group and a third of\u00a0the control group\u2014reduced their values to less than 130 mmHg. Adverse events were similar between the two groups.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have the tools to treat high blood pressure, but the challenge is effectively implementing these tools in primary care and helping patients adhere to medications and lifestyle changes,\u201d\u00a0Mills says.\u00a0\u201cThis trial showed that a team-based approach to supporting and treating patients with uncontrolled blood pressure in low-income rural and urban areas can effectively lower\u202fhigh blood pressure.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
There are about 1,400 FQHS nationwide. The researchers hope this program could be implemented more widely. The findings suggest that doing so could improve public health.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2014by Amber Snyder\u00a0<\/p>\n
Related Links<\/p>\n
References<\/p>\n
Multifaceted Strategies for Hypertension Control in Low-Income Patients<\/a>.\u00a0Mills KT,\u00a0Krousel-Wood M, Peacock EM, Chen J,\u00a0Allouch\u00a0F, Carreras AK, Geng S, Cyprian A, Davis G, Fuqua SR, Gilliam D, Greer A, Mitchell T, Gray-Winfrey W, Williams S, Wiltz GM, Winfrey KL, He H, Whelton PK, He J. N Engl J Med. 2026 Apr 9;394(14):1376-1387.\u00a0doi: 10.1056\/NEJMoa2504068. PMID: 41950472.<\/p>\n Funding<\/p>\n
NIH\u2019s\u00a0National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute\u00a0(NHLBI),\u00a0National Institute on Aging\u00a0(NIA),\u00a0National Institute of General Medical Sciences\u00a0(NIGMS), and\u00a0National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities\u00a0(NIMHD).\u202f<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"May 19, 2026 At a Glance Researchers found that a multifaceted intervention was better than a standard approach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2014,163,4210,3855,85,210316,210317,46,210322,210321,167776,150460,210319,210318,210320],"class_list":["post-449870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-blood-pressure-control","tag-health","tag-high-blood-pressure","tag-hypertension","tag-il","tag-impacts-bp","tag-implementation-of-multifaceted-patient-centered-treatment-strategies-for-intensive-blood-pressure-control","tag-israel","tag-katherine-mills","tag-multifaceted-implementation-strategy","tag-nejm","tag-new-england-journal-of-medicine","tag-sprint","tag-systolic-blood-pressure-intervention-trial","tag-team-based-care"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}