A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that the internet is being used very successfully when it comes to providing people with high blood pressure medical information as well as medications.
This news is great for all of the people with access to a computer who are dealing with hypertention, as it could mean that they may be able to treat their high blood pressure from the comfort of their home, not needing to go to the doctor for advice they can get on the web.
To test to see if this could be possible, researchers recruited more than 700 adults with high blood pressure that was not currently being treated.
They were split into various treatment groups, with some only using the internet, others using just home monitoring, while others had usuall care.
The researchers found that after a year, nearly half of the internet group were able to get their blood pressure to satisfactory numbers, making that group the most successful
“Our demographic was middle-aged, working people for whom Web-based care is particularly convenient, particularly for reporting BP numbers and simple or structured communications,” stated Dr. Beverly B. Green, at the University of Washington in Seattle.
“Web communication (e-mail and secure messaging) improves health care because it is always available (24/7), allows people to respond at a time that is convenient to them, and often in a much briefer way than over the telephone or certainly during an in-person visit,” Green concluded.
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