Dr. Paul Muntner, Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Associate Dean for Research, School of Public Health was awarded an R01 Research Project Grant of $1.55 million from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI).

Dr. Muntner's research will focus on home blood pressure and falls among older adults.

A newly NIH-funded prospective cohort study (AMBulatoRy blOod preSsure In older Adults [AMBROSIA]) will evaluate the association of BP, measured outside of the clinic setting using ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM), with falls risk among 1,057 adults, taking antihypertensive medication from the Kaiser Permanente Southern California (KPSC) health system.

The overall goal of the proposed ancillary study to AMBROSIA is to determine whether BP on HBPM can identify older adults taking antihypertensive medication who are at increased risk for falls, and whether HBPM provides similar predictive value for falls when compared with ABPM. AMBROSIA will begin study visits in February 2019 and the proposed ancillary study (AMBROSIA-HOME) will add the conduct of HBPM for 7 days, with two BP measurements obtained in the morning and two BP measurements obtained in the evening on each day, following the conduct of ABPM for 950 participants.