Primary Care Strategies to Reduce High Blood Pressure: A Cluster Randomized Trial in Rural Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka

Background: High blood pressure (BP) is the leading attributable risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). In rural South Asia, hypertension remains to be a significant public health issue with sub-optimal rates of case finding and management. The goal of the full-scale study is to evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of multicomponent primary care strategies on lowering blood pressure among adults with hypertension in rural communities in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.

Methods/Design: The mixed-methods, stratified cluster randomized controlled trial

Intervention: The multi-component interventions (MCI) is comprised of all the following five components: 1) home health education (HHE) by government community health workers (CHWs), plus 2) blood pressure (BP) monitoring and stepped-up referral to a trained general practitioner (GP) using a checklist, plus 3) training public and private providers in management of hypertension and using a checklist, plus 4) designating hypertension triage counter and hypertension care coordinators in government clinics, plus 5) a financing model to compensate for additional health services and provide subsides to low income individuals with poorly controlled hypertension.

Usual care: Will comprise existing services in the community without any additional training.

Participants: The trial will be conducted on 2550 individuals aged 40 years or older with hypertension (systolic BP ≥ 140 mm Hg or diastolic BP≥ 90 mm Hg, or on antihypertensive therapy) in 30 rural communities of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Out of the 2550 individuals, 420 with poorly controlled BP (Systolic BP≥160 mmHg or Diastolic BP≥100 mmHg) will be selected, 14 from each community, to investigate the effect of MCI on results from ambulatory BP monitoring.

Qualitative component: Stakeholders including policymakers, district managers, and community health workers, GPs, hypertensive individuals and family members in the identified clusters will be surveyed.

Outcome: The primary outcome will be change in systolic BP from baseline to follow-up at 24 months post randomization. The cost effectiveness outcome is the incremental cost of MCI per unit reduction in BP over the two year time period and in terms of incremental cost per CVD DALYs averted.


Eligibility Criteria:
Main study:

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Age≥ 40 years
2. Residing in the selected clusters
3. Hypertension defined either as:

   1. Persistently elevated BP (systolic BP ≥140 mm Hg or diastolic BP ≥90 mm Hg) from each set of last 2 of 3 readings from 2 separate days
   2. maintained on anti-hypertensive medications
4. Informed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Permanently bed-ridden individuals too ill to commute to the clinic
2. Pregnancy, or individuals with advanced medical disease (on dialysis, liver failure, other systemic diseases)
3. Individuals that are mentally compromised and unable to give informed consent

Sub-study:

1) fulfill all criteria of main study and, 2) Persistently elevated systolic BP \>160 mm Hg or diastolic BP \>100 mm Hg from each set of 2 readings from 2 separate days

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