Accuracy of blood pressure measurement across BMI categories using the OptiBP™ mobile application.

What is the context? • Hypertension and obesity have a major impact on population health and costs. • Obesity is a chronic disease characterized by abnormal or excessive fat accumulation. • Obesity, in combination with other diseases like hypertension, is a major risk factor for cardiovascular and total death. • In Europe, the obesity rate is 21.5% for men and 24.5% for women. • Hypertension, which continues to increase in the population, is a factor that can be modified when well managed. • Blood pressure measurement by the usual method may be complicated in obese patients due to fat accumulation and the shape of the arm and can lead to measurement errors. In addition, the non-invasive blood pressure measurement can be constraining and uncomfortable.What is new? • Smartphone apps are gradually appearing and allow the measurement of blood pressure without a pressure cuff using photoplethysmography. • OptiBP is a smartphone application that provides an estimate of blood pressure that has been evaluated in the general population. • The objective of this study is to assess whether OptiBP is equally effective in obese and overweight patients.What is the impact? • The use of smartphones to estimate BP in overweight and obese patients may be a solution to the known bias associated with cuff measurement. • The acquisition of more and more data with a larger number of patients will allow the continuous improvement of the application's algorithm.