Global Public Health, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Monash University, Sunway Campus, Malaysia.
Glob Health Action. 2012;5:14876. doi: 10.3402/gha.v5i0.14876. Epub 2012 Jun 27.
Population monitoring and screening of blood pressure is an important part of any population health strategy. Qualified health workers are expensive and often unavailable for screening. Non-health workers with electronic blood pressure monitors are increasingly used in community-based research. This approach is unvalidated. In a poor, urban community we compared blood pressure measurements taken by non-health workers using electronic devices against qualified health workers using mercury sphygmomanometers.
Fifty-six adult volunteers participated in the research. Data were collected by five qualified health workers, and six non-health workers. Participants were randomly allocated to have their blood pressure measured on four consecutive occasions by alternating a qualified health worker with a non-health worker. Descriptive statistics and graphs, and mixed effects linear models to account for the repeated measurement were used in the analysis.
Blood pressure readings by non-health workers were more reliable than those taken by qualified health workers. There was no significant difference between the readings taken by qualified health workers and those taken by non-health workers for systolic blood pressure. Non-health workers were, on average, 5-7 mmHg lower in their measures of blood pressure than the qualified health workers (95%HPD: -2.9 to -10.0) for diastolic blood pressure.
The results provide empirical evidence that supports the practice of non-health workers using electronic devices for BP measurement in community-based research and screening. Non-health workers recorded blood pressures that differed from qualified health workers by no more than 10 mmHg. The approach is promising, but more research is needed to establish the generalisability of the results.
人口血压监测和筛查是任何人口健康策略的重要组成部分。合格的卫生工作者费用高昂，且往往无法进行筛查。具有电子血压计的非卫生工作者在基于社区的研究中越来越多地被使用。但这种方法尚未得到验证。在一个贫穷的城市社区，我们比较了非卫生工作者使用电子设备和合格卫生工作者使用汞柱血压计测量的血压。
56 名成年志愿者参与了这项研究。数据由五名合格的卫生工作者和六名非卫生工作者收集。参与者被随机分配，在连续四次测量中交替由合格卫生工作者和非卫生工作者进行血压测量。分析中使用了描述性统计和图表以及混合效应线性模型来解释重复测量。
非卫生工作者的血压读数比合格卫生工作者的更可靠。合格卫生工作者和非卫生工作者的收缩压读数没有显著差异。非卫生工作者的舒张压读数平均比合格卫生工作者低 5-7mmHg（95%HPD：-2.9 至-10.0）。
结果提供了支持非卫生工作者在基于社区的研究和筛查中使用电子设备进行血压测量的实践的经验证据。非卫生工作者记录的血压与合格卫生工作者相差不超过 10mmHg。该方法有前景，但需要进一步研究以确定结果的普遍性。
