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Perceptions of pharmacists on the quality of automated blood pressure devices: a national survey

Citation

Picone, DS and Peterson, GM and Jackson, JL and Campbell, NRC and Delles, C and Hecht Olsen, M and Padwal, R and Schutte, AE and Sharman, JE, Perceptions of pharmacists on the quality of automated blood pressure devices: a national survey, Journal of human hypertension pp. 1-6. ISSN 1476-5527 (2022) [Refereed Article]


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© 2022. The Authors. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License, (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Official URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41371-022-00670-4

DOI: doi:10.1038/s41371-022-00670-4

Abstract

A recent study found that only 23.8% of blood pressure (BP) devices available for purchase from Australian pharmacies were validated for accuracy. The extent to which pharmacists are aware of this, and other issues related to the accuracy of BP devices, is not known and gathering this information was the aim of this study. An online survey of Australian pharmacists was distributed via the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia between 1 October and 25 November 2020. Questions were focused on the views of pharmacists related to the accuracy of BP devices. Two hundred and ten pharmacists completed the survey. The accuracy of BP devices sold by pharmacists was considered 'quite' or 'extremely important' to most respondents (94%). However, most respondents (90%) were unaware that less than one-quarter of BP devices sold by Australian pharmacies were validated, and this was 'quite' or 'extremely surprising' to many (69%). Many respondents (64%) associated a particular brand of BP device with greater accuracy. There was low awareness on proper ways to identify accurate BP devices, such as checking reputable online databases (43%). BP devices were stocked in respondents' pharmacies based on perceived quality (50%), accuracy (40%), or as determined by the pharmacy chain (36%). In conclusion, providing accurate BP devices to consumers is important to pharmacists, but they were generally unaware that most devices available from pharmacies were not validated for accuracy. Pharmacist education, alongside advocacy for policies including regulations and strategic action, is required to ensure only validated BP devices are sold in Australia.

Item Details

Item Type:Refereed Article
Keywords:blood pressure, hypertension, public health, education, accuracy of blood pressure measurement
Research Division:Biomedical and Clinical Sciences
Research Group:Cardiovascular medicine and haematology
Research Field:Cardiology (incl. cardiovascular diseases)
Objective Division:Health
Objective Group:Clinical health
Objective Field:Diagnosis of human diseases and conditions
UTAS Author:Picone, DS (Dr Dean Picone)
UTAS Author:Peterson, GM (Professor Gregory Peterson)
UTAS Author:Jackson, JL (Dr Shane Jackson)
UTAS Author:Sharman, JE (Professor James Sharman)
ID Code:153017
Year Published:2022
Web of Science® Times Cited:1
Deposited By:Menzies Institute for Medical Research
Deposited On:2022-09-01
Last Modified:2023-01-13
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