Abstract
Funding Acknowledgements
Type of funding sources: None.
Abstract
COVID-19 pandemic has induced governments to promote strict containment measures which
inevitably altered patients’ lifestyle with potential effects on blood pressure (BP)
control. We aimed to evaluate the changes in home BP (HBP) during the COVID-19 related
lockdown in a cohort of hypertensive patients.
Consecutive adult patients with arterial hypertension and stable medical treatment were
recruited. HBP values were recorded before and after lockdown in March 2020. An
additional set of HBP measurements, recorded one year before the pre-lockdown period,
were also considered as reference because of similar environmental temperature.
A total of 126 patients were included: 47% males, mean age 66 [58-72], reference HBP
124.78 (9.90)/76.19 (8.10) mmHg. In the whole group, patients during lockdown exhibited
lower systolic and diastolic HBP values compared to the pre-lockdown period [123.23 vs
125.05 mmHg, p = 0.008 and 74.45 vs 75.28 mmHg, p = 0.023, respectively]. Patients with
uncontrolled HBP showed the most consistent drop of systolic HBP [136.06 (8.36) and
138.0 (2.08) vs 130 (9.35) p = 0.001 and p < 0.001] and diastolic [81.30 (6.75) and
84.9 (1.85) vs 78.78 (9.25), p = 0.018 and p = 0.002] from pre-lockdown to lockdown and
when considering reference values taken one year before, respectively. (Figure 1: Mean
values at baseline, pre-lockdown and during lockdown in the 3 groups for systolic (A)
and diastolic (B) blood pressure (dotted line = uncontrolled BP group, solid
line = unstable BP control, dashed line = controlled BP group). *p<.001 (one year
before lockdown vs lockdown SBP), #p = 0.001 (pre-lockdown vs lockdown SBP), $p = 0.002
(one year before lockdown vs lockdown DBP), §p = 0.018 (pre-lockdown vs lockdown DBP).
Grey box refers to the lockdown period. SBP = systolic blood pressure, DBP = diastolic
blood pressure.)
In conclusion, this study reports for the first time the occurrence of no changes or
even a reduction in home BP of treated hypertensive patients during lockdown due to
COVID-19. These results may have implications for the management of patients with high
blood pressure not only during the current pandemic but also in case of future lockdown
conditions.
Abstract Figure 1
![]()
Collapse