Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2011 Mar;40(2):187-92.
doi: 10.1093/ageing/afq176. Epub 2011 Jan 13.

The effect of sleeping with the head of the bed elevated six inches on elderly patients with orthostatic hypotension: an open randomised controlled trial

Chie Wei Fan  1 , Cathal Walsh, Conal J Cunningham
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

The effect of sleeping with the head of the bed elevated six inches on elderly patients with orthostatic hypotension: an open randomised controlled trial

Chie Wei Fan et al. Age Ageing. 2011 Mar.

Abstract

Background: the evidence for 6-inch tilt sleeping-head-up (SHU), a common therapy for the treatment of orthostatic hypotension (OH) in older people, is unavailable.

Objective: to investigate the effects of 6-inch SHU for 6 weeks in community-living patients with chronic OH.

Design: open labelled randomised controlled trial.

Methods: one hundred patients aged ≥60 with chronic OH were randomised into SHU or control groups. Primary outcome measures were mean arterial pressure (MAP) and symptoms. Repeated measures of orthostatic haemodynamic parameters (systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, MAP, heart rate, percentage change of Modelflow parameters), weight, frequency of dizziness, 24-h urinary sodium and volume, 24-h ambulatory blood pressure (24-ABPM) and presence of ankle oedema were collected at baseline and at 6 weeks.

Results: symptoms improved, to a similar extent, in both groups. There were no differences in MAP or other haemodynamic parameters, weight, urinary volume or 24-ABPM between SHU and controls. SHU were more likely to have leg oedema.

Conclusions: these findings suggested that SHU at 6 inches has no additional effects on symptoms or haemodynamic parameters at 6 weeks than existing non-pharmacological measures in older patients with OH. Its use in this group should therefore be discouraged.

PubMed Disclaimer

Comment in

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

Publication types

MeSH terms