Postexercise Hypotension and Exercise Adherence

Sedentary (n=24) adults ≥18 yr with elevated BP to established hypertension were enrolled into this randomized clinical trial entitled, 'Blood Pressure UtiLizing Self-Monitoring after Exercise study or PULSE'. Participants were randomly assigned to either an exercise only (EXERCISE; n=12) or exercise plus BP self-monitoring (EXERCISE+PEH) (n=12) group. All participants participated in a 12 wk supervised moderate intensity aerobic exercise training program 40 min/d for 3 d/wk. In addition, they were encouraged to exercise at home ≥30 min/d for 1-2 d/wk. All participants self-monitored exercise with a traditional calendar recording method and heart rate (HR) monitor. In addition to traditional exercise self-monitoring (EXERCISE), individuals in the EXERCISE+PEH group were given a home BP monitor to assess home BP twice daily (in the morning upon awakening and in the evening) and prior to and after voluntary home exercise sessions. Resting BP, peak oxygen consumption (VO2peak), physical activity, dietary and salt intake, and antihypertensive medication adherence were measured before and after the 12 wk supervised exercise training program. In addition, integrated social-cognitive predictors of exercise that included questionnaires on exercise self-efficacy, barriers self-efficacy, outcome expectations for exercise, exercise intention, and affective responses to exercise were measured before and after the 12 wk supervised exercise training program. Four weeks following the completion of exercise training, self-reported exercise levels were assessed during a telephone interview in both groups. Among EXERCISE+PEH only, self-monitoring of BP was also self-reported during this telephone interview.

A sub-study following the completion of the PULSE clinical trial investigated the reliability and time course of change of PEH during the 12-week exercise training program. Participants (n = 10) were PEH responders from the EXERCISE + PEH control arm who underwent 12 wk of supervised aerobic exercise training, 40 min/session at moderate-to-vigorous intensity for 3 d/wk. BP was assessed via a home BP monitor. PEH was calculated as post- minus pre-exercise BP for 36 sessions. To quantify the reliability of PEH, RMANCOVA and GRMANCOVA adjusted for pre-exercise BP derived the between-participant and measurement error variability that were used to calculate the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). The Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) compared the goodness-of-fit of the PEH models for each week of training.