(Reliability of patients measuring blood pressure at home: prospective observational study)

Asking patients to measure their blood pressure at home avoids the problem of "white coat hypertension" where blood pressure rises in the presence of a doctor, and in most patients is sufficiently accurate, says a paper by Battegay et al in this week's BMJ.

In a sample of 54 patients asked to take twice daily blood pressure readings for 30 days using an automated monitor, 73% of measurements were reported correctly. Their readings were checked against automatic recordings within the monitors. Low educational level was the only independent predictor of poor reporting accuracy. Dr Edouard Battegay reports that for patients in this category, other methods of recording blood pressure may be preferable to self reported measurements.

Contact:

Dr Edouard Battegay, Assistant Professor, Dept Internal Medicine, University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland Email: [email protected]