Nonvalidated home blood pressure devices dominate the online marketplace in Australia: major implications for cardiovascular risk management

Picone, D. S. et al. (2020) Nonvalidated home blood pressure devices dominate the online marketplace in Australia: major implications for cardiovascular risk management. Hypertension, 75(6), pp. 1593-1599. (doi: 10.1161/hypertensionaha.120.14719) (PMID:32275193)

Abstract

Self-home blood pressure (BP) monitoring is recommended to guide clinical decisions on hypertension and is used worldwide for cardiovascular risk management. People usually make their own decisions when purchasing BP devices, which can be made online. If patients purchase nonvalidated devices (those not proven accurate according to internationally accepted standards), hypertension management may be based on inaccurate readings resulting in under- or over-diagnosis or treatment. This study aimed to evaluate the number, type, percentage validated, and cost of home BP devices available online. A search of online businesses selling devices for home BP monitoring was conducted. Multinational companies make worldwide deliveries, so searches were restricted to BP devices available for one nation (Australia) as an example of device availability through the global online marketplace. Validation status of BP devices was determined according to established protocols. Fifty nine online businesses, selling 972 unique BP devices were identified. These included 278 upper-arm cuff devices (18.3% validated), 162 wrist-cuff devices (8.0% validated), and 532 wrist-band wearables (0% validated). Most BP devices (92.4%) were stocked by international e-commerce businesses (eg, eBay, Amazon), but only 5.5% were validated. Validated cuff BP devices were more expensive than nonvalidated devices: median (interquartile range) of 101.1 (75.0–151.5) versus 67.4 (30.4–112.8) Australian Dollars. Nonvalidated BP devices dominate the online marketplace and are sold at lower cost than validated ones, which is a major barrier to accurate home BP monitoring and cardiovascular risk management. Before purchasing a BP device, people should check it has been validated at https://www.stridebp.org .

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Delles, Professor Christian
• Authors: Picone, D. S., Deshpande, R. A., Schultz, M. G., Fonseca, R., Campbell, N. R.C., Delles, C., Hecht-Olsen, M., Schutte, A. E., Stergiou, G., Padwal, R., Zhang, X.-H., and Sharman, J. E.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Cardiovascular & Metabolic Health
• Journal Name: Hypertension
• Publisher: American Heart Association
• ISSN: 0194-911X
• ISSN (Online): 1524-4563
• Published Online: 10 April 2020
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2020 American Heart Association, Inc.
• First Published: First published in Hypertension 75(6):1593–1599
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
303944		BHF Centre of Excellence	Rhian Touyz	British Heart Foundation (BHF)	RE/18/6/34217	CAMS - Cardiovascular Science