Effectiveness of peer mentoring and self-monitoring to improve blood pressure control in a vulnerable population in Argentina: Pragmatic randomized open-label controlled trial.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of blood pressure (BP) self-monitoring and peer mentoring to improve the control of hypertension in clinical practice in primary care centers (PCCs) located in low-resource settings in Argentina.

Methods: An individual randomized controlled trial was carried out to test two different approaches based on behavioral interventions in PCCs in Argentina. Hypertensive adults were randomly assigned to one of three arms: BP self-monitoring, peer mentoring, and usual care. The primary outcome was the change in BP values from baseline to the end of follow-up at 3 months. A qualitative approach of participants' experiences of the peer mentoring arm was also conducted.

Results: A total of 442 participants with hypertension were included in the study. Self-monitoring and peer mentoring interventions did not show a significant difference in BP control compared to usual care. However, this trial showed an improvement regarding antihypertensive medication adherence among those assigned to the peer mentoring intervention compared to the control at the end of follow-up (p = 0.031).

Discussion: Self-monitoring and peer mentoring interventions did not demonstrate to be effective in BP control compared to usual care. Implementing a peer support strategy was demonstrated to be feasible and effective in improving medication adherence in this population.