Trying to choose a blood pressure monitor for use at home can seem bewildering. There is a wide range of machines available - all of them claiming to have advantages over each other. So - how do you choose one?
Do you need to monitor blood pressure at home?
This is really the first question that you need to ask yourself. Do you really need to check your BP at home on a regular basis or is it enough to have your doctor check it every once in a while? The evidence is now pretty convincing that if your doctor checks then your reading is likely to be quite a bit higher than if you check it yourself at home. This rise in levels when faced with a doctor is sometimes called white coat hypertension.
Some doctors or hospitals make use of sophisticated machines which can record a whole series of readings in a 24 hour period - called twenty four hour ambulatory monitoring. Recording things this way gives a very clear picture of what your true level is doing but it may not always be required unless your BP is proving very hard to control.
In general - provided you can afford to buy the monitor, and providing you don't get too obsessive about small variations in the readings, then having a home BP checker system is a good idea. You can quickly learn to build up a chart of your own readings and this may help you and your doctor plan your treatment more effectively.
Many people who purchase a monitor feel that it gives them a greater sense of involvement in their own healthcare. Others simply get panicky when the readings show a normal and natural variation from day to day. If you buy one then try to get into the habit of checking your own reading at or around the same time every day - this will tend to improve the reliability of the results.
What kind of blood pressure monitor should you buy?
In general my advice would be to buy the best that you can afford. It's your long-term health we're discussing and it's important to take that seriously. The monitors that are now available to buy are for the most part quite accurate. The mid to high range ones are often used in hospital departments or by family doctors and have been carefully tested for accuracy and reliability. Some of the manual versions tend to lose their accuracy over time.
Make sure that the cuff fits your arm
One of the key things when measuring is to choose a cuff that fits comfortably all the way round your arm. If the cuff is too tight then the monitor will return a reading that is higher than the true reading. At the press of a button on the automatic blood pressure monitor the blood pressure cuff will inflate to a certain level and then automatically deflates again. There is a sensor in the blood pressure cuff that automatically detects the rate of your heart and measures your blood pressure reading. The result will be displayed on a screen with the higher number showing your systolic blood pressure and the lower number showing your diastolic blood pressure.
Before checking your readings you should have rested sitting down for at least five minutes.
Make sure that you line up the arrow on the cuff with the pulse at the crease in front of your elbow - ask your doctor to show you how to do this if you are not sure.
The monitor machine will have a built in function to alert you if an error occurs with your reading.
Upper arm digital monitor
These machines usually come out as being most accurate and most reliable in independent tests. The blood pressure cuff goes around the upper part of your arm with the arrow to the front over the artery pulse at the front of your elbow crease.
Wrist or finger digital monitor
Most doctors think that these are less reliable than the upper arm version. The readings can be sensitive to movement or to changes in body temperature. Some of the more expensive wrist monitor models are improving their accuracy but are still generally not quite as accurate as the upper arm models.
If you do decide to buy a digital blood pressure monitor then it is important to take it with you to your doctor's office once a year or so and compare the reading it gets with your doctors machine.
Also, one last tip:
Please don't forget to change the batteries from time to time! You might end up feeling rather foolish if you do.
