ESCAPE ancillary blood pressure measurement study 2: changes in end-digit preference after 2 years of a cluster randomized trial.

ObjectiveThe aim of the ESCAPE AMPA 2 trial was to describe the evolution of end-digit preference (EDP) practices in primary care after 2 years of trial.MethodsA descriptive analysis of the EDP in the intervention group (IG) and in the electronic control group (ECG) of the ESCAPE trial and a comparative analysis of EDP changes in blood pressure (BP) measures of both groups were carried out between baseline and 2 years. In the ESCAPE trial, physicians in the IG were new users of electronic devices provided in the trial to measure their patients' BP and physicians in the ECG were former users of electronic devices. Hierarchical mixed-effects models were used for statistical analysis in a pragmatic cluster randomized-controlled trial.ResultsAfter 2 years, the proportion of BP measures ending with a 0 or a 5 was significantly higher in the ECG than in the IG (50.4 vs. 33.4%, P<0.0001). There was no significant change in EDP tendency between baseline and the end of the trial in the ECG (65.6-56.7%, P=0.39) and in the IG (29.6-38.2%, P=0.07), with a between-groups P value of 0.11. Over 2 years, there was no significant change in systematic EDP in the ECG (18.8-20.0%, P=0.29) and in the IG (4.8-10.6%, P=0.01), with a between-groups P value of 0.17.ConclusionEDP is not eliminated by electronic devices and tends to increase with time for new users.