Table 1.
Characteristics of study participants during the nurse-led stage-1 teleconsultations
| Total (%) (N=12 042) | |
| Age (in years), mean (SD) | 58.9 (12.8) |
| Men | 7870 (65.4) |
| Hypertension | 5515 (45.8) |
| Diabetes mellitus | 5046 (41.9) |
| Clinical symptoms | |
| Chest pain | 137 (1.1) |
| Palpitation | 29 (0.2) |
| Breathlessness | 142 (1.2) |
| Fatigue | 57 (0.5) |
| Fever | 42 (0.3) |
| Influenza-like illness | 99 (0.8) |
| Doctor referral for clinical symptoms | 231 (1.9) |
| Hypertension self-care | |
| Self-monitoring of BP at home | 6248 (51.9) |
| Critically high BP* requiring physician referral | 193 (1.6) |
| Blood sugar self-care | |
| Self-monitoring of blood sugar at home | 3843 (31.9) |
| Critically high sugar level† requiring physician referral | 333 (2.8) |
| Treatment | |
| Medicine availability | 11 400 (94.7) |
| Compliance to medications‡ | 10 577 (87.8) |
| Regular exercises§ | 7330 (60.9) |
| Beta blockers | 4656 (38.7) |
| Statins | 5018 (41.7) |
| ACE inhibitors/ARBs | 3937 (33) |
| Calcium channel blockers | 2419 (20.1) |
| Antiplatelet drugs | 5361 (44.5) |
| Well-being score categories | |
| Low (0–4) | 161 (1.3) |
| Medium (5–6) | 1379 (11.5) |
| High (7–8) | 9018 (74.9) |
| Very high (9–10) | 1482 (12.3) |
*Critically high BP defined as SBP ≥ 160 mm Hg and DBP≥ 100 mm Hg.
†Critically high defined as RBS ≥200 mg/dL.
‡Referred to the adherence to the medication prescribed to the patient.
§Defined if the patient was doing yoga as advised at the time of discharge or at least >30 min of moderate activity for at least five times a week (preferably daily).
ARB, angiotensin receptor blocker; BP, blood pressure; DBP, diastolic BP; RBS, random blood sugar; SBP, systolic BP.