Can Robocalls Improve Hypertension?

A new study by Kaiser Permanente researchers concluded that simple automated phone calls to enrollees with hypertension could go a significant way toward controlling their condition.

Researchers examined more than 64,000 enrollees in Kaiser's Southern California division who suffered from uncontrolled hypertension. 

About half of those members received automated phone calls asking them to have their blood pressure measured. The other half did not receive phone calls.

A month after the phone calls were made, 32.5% of those who received them had their hypertension under control. That compares with the 23.7% who had it under control who received no phone calls.

“We found that this simple outreach program can improve blood pressure control, especially among patients with multiple chronic conditions,” said Teresa Harrison, a research associate at Kaiser Permanente Southern California's Department of Research & Evaluation and the study's lead author.

Hypertension affects about 30% of the U.S. population over the age of 18. Kaiser's Northern California Division has used a variety of outreach programs to raise the level of enrollees with controlled hypertension from 43.6% in 2001 to 80.4% in 2009.

“From our perspective, this type of outreach is a win-win scenario that can provide physicians with terrific hypertension control rates and patients with improved health outcomes,” said Joel Handler, M.D., Kaiser's hypertension lead and another author of the study. It was published in the most recent issue of the Journal of Clinical Hypertension.