34. BLOOD PRESSURE CONTROL AMONG HYPERTENSIVE PATIENTS IN SANGLAH GENERAL HOSPITAL DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic presents a challenge to control patients with chronic disease and conditions, because many people have postponed regular visit for chronic health condition such as hypertension. To make things worse, hypertension is the most important comorbidities and predictor of poor outcomes from COVID-19. Blood pressure control become more crucial to be top priority during this pandemic and beyond. Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the blood pressure control status among hypertensive patient in outpatient settings during the pandemic, as compared to before the pandemic of COVID-19. Methods: This retrospective, comparative cross-sectional study included 108 medical records of patients with hypertension diagnosis in outpatient cardiology clinic, at Sanglah General Hospital in January 2021. The data obtained were blood pressure during pandemic in January 2021, compared to blood pressure in the same patient before the pandemic (before March 2020). Result: The proportion of controlled hypertension before pandemic era was 49.1%, and has decreased during the pandemic to 39.8% (p value = 0.123). Wilcoxon signed rank test showed that there was increased systolic blood pressure level between before pandemic compared to during pandemic of COVID-19 (p value = 0.041). Conclusion: The optimal management of hypertension become a very important issue during pandemic of COVID-19, since patients with this pre-existing condition could experience severe complications when infected with SARS-CoV-2. The alternatives to hospital and community-based care, such as mobile phone consultation or telemedicine can be developed by the multidiscipline collaboration to increase control status of hypertension.