Home versus Office blood pressure MEasurements: Reduction of Unnecessary treatment Study: Rationale and Study design of the HOMERUS Trial

The Home versus Office MEasurements, Reduction of Unnecessary treatment Study (HOMERUS) is a multicentre prospective study, primarily designed to examine in subjects with mild to moderate hypertension whether treatment decisions based on home blood pressure measurements can lead to reduction in the use of antihypertensive drugs and the associated costs, compared to office blood pressure measurements. After inclusion, 360 patients are randomized to two groups. In one group, antihypertensive therapy is based on blood pressure measured in the outpatient clinic: the office pressure (OP) group. In the other group, antihypertensive therapy is based on home blood pressure measurements: the self-pressure (SP) group. All readings, both in OP and in SP, are obtained with the same validated oscillometric device, the Omron 705 CP. Treatment decisions are taken by an independent physician at the coordinating centre, who is unaware whether the patient belongs to the SP or OP group. Following a standardized treatment schedule, blood pressure is targeted at 120-139 mmHg for systolic and 80-89 mmHg for diastolic pressure. Patients are followed for 1 year. At the start and at the end of the study, ambulatory blood pressure measurements are obtained as a reference. Microalbuminuria and echocardiography are assessed to evaluate the possible development of target organ damage. It is expected that, at the end of the trial, patients in both groups will have the same blood pressure, at the expense of more medication in the OP group. Therefore, a cost-minimization analysis will be performed first. If short-term effects appear not to be comparable for OP and SP, a cost-effectiveness analysis will be performed to assess the value of the SP strategy in comparison to standard practice. In addition, medication compliance is recorded within random subgroups of the SP and OP groups by means of Medication Event Monitoring System (MEMS) V TrackCaps.