Objective To determine the effect of home blood pressure monitoring on blood pressure levels and proportion of people with essential hypertension achieving targets. Design Meta-analysis of 18 randomised controlled trials. Participants 1359 people with essential hypertension allocated to home blood pressure monitoring and 1355 allocated to the "control" group seen in the healthcare system for 2-36 months. Main outcome measures Differences in systolic (13 studies), diastolic (16 studies), or mean (3 studies) blood pressures, and proportion of patients achieving targets (6 studies), between intervention and control groups. Results Systolic blood pressure was lower in people with hypertension who had home blood pressure monitoring than in those who had standard blood pressure monitoring in the healthcare system (standardised mean difference 4.2 (95% confidence interval 1.5 to 6.9) mm Hg), diastolic blood pressure was lower by 2.4 (1.2 to 3.5) mm Hg, and mean blood pressure was lower by 4.4 (2.0 to 6.8) mm Hg. The relative risk of blood pressure above predetermined targets was lower in people with home blood pressure monitoring (risk ratio 0.90, 0.80 to 1.00). When publication bias was allowed for, the differences were attenuated: 2.2 ( − 0.9 to 5.3) mm Hg for systolic blood pressure and 1.9 (0.6 to 3.2) mm Hg for diastolic blood pressure. Conclusions Blood pressure control in people with hypertension (assessed in the clinic) and the proportion achieving targets are increased when home blood pressure monitoring is used rather than standard blood pressure monitoring in the healthcare system. The reasons for this are not clear. The difference in blood pressure control between the two methods is small but likely to contribute to an important reduction in vascular complications in the hypertensive population.

Purpose -Seeks to provide empirical support for the "brand personality effect", that is, the direct influence that brand personality will have on a variety of consumer-driven outcomes. Design/methodology/approach -Tests a series of hypotheses using experimental research design with 192 subjects. Findings -Support is found for all proposed hypotheses. These findings indicate that brand personality will have a positive influence on product evaluations and that subjects exposed to a brand's personality will have a significantly greater number of brand associations; significantly greater proportion of brand associations; significantly greater unique brand associations; significantly greater proportion of congruent brand associations; and significantly greater proportion of strong brand associations. Practical implications -This paper conceptually establishes brand personality and empirically demonstrates the brand personality effect on consumer-based outcomes. This finding strengthens the brand personality literature and establishes a baseline study for future empirical research. Originality/value -Brand personality has received levels of research from academics and practitioners alike, but this research presents the first empirical test of the direct effect of brand personality and how it drives consumer behavior.

Purpose -The authors propose focusing on e-commerce service failure and recovery through the presentation of failure and recovery strategies employed by e-commerce service firms. Design/methodology/approach -The authors employ the critical incident technique using 377 customer responses to present ten e-tail failures and 11 e-tail recovery strategies used by e-commerce service firms. The authors also present data on post-recovery satisfaction levels and propensity to switch behavior. Findings -Findings indicate that: e-tail customers experience different types of service failure relative to traditional retail settings; e-tail firms employ a different series of recovery strategies relative to traditional retail settings; and post-recovery switching by e-tail customers can be high even with satisfying experiences. Originality/value -This paper strengthens the existing failure and recovery literature by presenting data on the largest growing sector of the service industry. These findings will have value to traditional firms looking to expand to e-commerce channels in addition to e-commerce firms currently experiencing customer dissatisfaction.

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