Self-measured blood pressure (BP) monitoring (i.e. taking your blood pressure yourself at home) is recommended for:
- Long-term BP self-monitoring – of patients with high blood pressure (hypertension)
- Confirmation of hypertension – when 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring is unavailable.
However, less than 15 percent of commercially available blood pressure devices worldwide have published information on device accuracy.
In addition, a recent multinational study found that only about 20 percent of the most commonly purchased devices have been validated (Picone et al, JAMA, 2023).
Because self-measured blood pressure is a key part of hypertension management, we suggest validated BP devices are recommended to patients by their doctors, nurses and pharmacists.
Last Reviewed on 14 September 2023