Blood Pressure Monitor Review

Types of blood pressure monitors

When evaluating home blood pressure monitors, it's important to consider both usability and accuracy. Considering the latter, the British Hypertension Society (BHS) produces internationally renowned guidelines for the management of hypertension, and it maintains lists of blood pressure monitors that have been tested using BHS protocols and have achieved a "passing grade" of B or better. In addition to these ratings, we found good comparative articles in a wide range of consumer publications, and professional and medical journals. These include Australia's Choice magazine, London's Daily Mail newspaper, The American Journal of Hypertension and others. ConsumerReports.org tests and rates 13 blood pressure monitors in the most recent report we found.

Digital blood pressure monitors for home use are either semiautomatic manual inflation -- you squeeze the bulb to inflate the cuff -- or automatic inflation. Automatic monitors have everything contained in one unit, so they're easier to handle than systems with a separate gauge and stethoscope. Most home blood pressure monitors are portable and have a D-ring cuff for one-handed application. More expensive monitors have automatic inflation and deflation systems,  plus large, easy-to-read digital displays and error indicators, reading printouts and built-in pulse (heart rate) measurements.

Most home blood pressure monitors measure either at the upper arm or wrist, though a few are also finger models. Experts such as the BHS say units measuring pressure at the upper arm are best, as the chance for error is too great when blood pressure is measured elsewhere. This is borne out by a 2009 study published in the medical journal Blood Pressure Monitoring that found only 20 percent of wrist blood pressure monitors to be suitably accurate (compared to 46 percent of upper-arm models). However, some users say that putting on an upper-arm cuff can be difficult -- so much so that the act itself raises blood pressure. We've also seen good user reports about some -- but not all -- blood pressure monitors that measure at the wrist.

Finally, a word about the blood pressure monitors found in many supermarkets and drugstores that offer free readings to the public. These machines are used continually and can get seriously out of calibration, so the value of their readings is limited.