An integrated program with home blood-pressure monitoring and village health volunteers for treating poorly controlled hypertension at the primary care level in an urban community of Thailand

An integrated program with home blood-pressure monitoring and village health volunteers for treating poorly controlled hypertension at the primary care level in an urban community of Thailand Sawitree Visanuyothin,1,2 Samlee Plianbangchang,1 Ratana Somrongthong1 1College of Public Health Sciences, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand; 2Social Medicine Department, Maharat Nakhon Ratchasima Hospital, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand Purpose: Hypertension (HT) is accountable for death in half of the patients suffering from heart disease and stroke. Many treatment strategies have been used, but little research exists on an integrated program with home blood pressure monitoring (HBPM) and village health volunteers (VHVs) in an urban area of Thailand. The present study aims to determine the effectiveness of the integrated program, HBPM, and VHVs in supporting the target population. Patients and methods: This quasi-experiment was conducted from July to November 2017. Patients with poorly controlled HT were randomly selected from each of the two primary care units in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand. The participants were separated into an experiment (n