Self-monitoring in pregnancy does not help detect or control high blood pressure
Self-monitoring during pregnancy does not help detect high blood pressure earlier or improve control of the condition, according to results of two clinical trials supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
However, self-monitoring was safe and acceptable to women and results will shape future research to improve the health of those with high blood pressure.
The studies, BUMP1 and BUMP2, were led by researchers from the University of Oxford and King’s College London and funded by NIHR Programme Grants for Applied Research. Results were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Over 3,000 participants, including over 900 recruited from the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford; Royal Berkshire Hospital, Reading and Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Aylesbury, took part.
BUMP1 recruited women at higher risk of pre-eclampsia, a condition causing high blood pressure during pregnancy and after labour.
BUMP2 enrolled those who had high blood pressure before pregnancy or who developed it during pregnancy.
In both studies, participants were randomly assigned to two groups, one receiving normal NHS care and one with additional blood pressure self-monitoring.
The trials found self-monitoring made no difference to the timing of high blood pressure diagnosis or how well it was controlled during pregnancy.
Professor Lucy Chappell, Professor of Obstetrics at King’s College London, said: “Importantly neither trial found any problem with self-monitoring, and there were high levels of acceptability.
“Further work will be needed to investigate if home readings can be used to support improvements in health outcomes for this group. In the meantime, women and pregnant people who wish to self-monitor can continue to do this and are advised to share their readings with their midwives/other clinicians. We would now like to consider how to develop the interventions further so that we can understand how we can improve health outcomes for women with pregnancy hypertension.”
