Abstract P177: Self-Reported Blood Pressure is Comparable to Measured Blood Pressure in a Study of General Population Participants

Background: Blood pressure (BP) is an established risk factor for several chronic diseases. Clinical measurement of BP is the preferable method to assess BP, but may not be feasible in large-scale epidemiologic studies. Self-reported BP has been widely collected as an alternative. It has not been well-studied whether self-reported BP is comparable to measured BP, particularly in the general population. Method: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis in a large, mail-based randomized controlled trial - VITamin D and OmegA-3 TriaL (VITAL) - to compare BP levels assessed using different methods. Participants of VITAL were women aged ≥55 years and men aged ≥50 years, free of cardiovascular disease and cancer. Among a total of 21,025 VITAL participants who reported BP in multiple categories on the baseline questionnaire, 1,955 also had seated BP measured at baseline clinic-based or home-based visits, and 269 also completed assessment of 24 hour ambulatory BP (24-hr ABP) monitoring. We included 264 VITAL partic...