*2.5. Outcome Measures*

### 2.5.1. Systolic and Diastolic Blood Pressure

To avoid coronavirus infections, the health authorities and hospital regulations prohibited access to medical facilities for patients who did not need urgent healthcare. Therefore, the participants were asked to visit a pharmacy close to their home so that the same person (a pharmacist or pharmacy assistant) could record these variables at Time 1 and Time 2 using the same approved device. As in the first intervention, the participants were instructed to record measurements between 8 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. noon to minimize variability in their daytime BP figures. BP was strictly analyzed according to the European Society of Hypertension (ESH)/European Society of Cardiology guidelines and the American College of Cardiology/American Society of Hypertension [2,3], so measurements were performed in the sitting position, in a quiet environment for 5 min before BP measurements, avoiding prior consumption of alcohol or smoking, drinking caffeine, or engaging in strenuous exercise. Three BP measurements were recorded, 1 minute apart, and BP was calculated as the average of the last two BP readings. Additional measurements were performed if the first two readings differed by more than 10 mmHg. Of note, the participants of this study—as with, in general, every patient treated in the Hypertension Unit at the Hospital Universitario de Sagunto—were routinely trained to correctly measure BP in this way.
