Blood pressure monitoring at home

Hypertension :: Blood pressure monitoring at home

Monitoring blood pressure at home lets people with hypertension control their condition better, says a study in the British Medical Journal.

Measuring blood pressure at home and keeping a record of the measurements will show you and your doctor how much your blood pressure changes during the day.

Your doctor can use the measurements to see how well your medicine is working to control your high blood pressure.

Researchers analyzed the results of 18 blood pressure monitoring studies of almost 3,000 people with hypertension. Of those, 1,359 did home blood pressure monitoring and 1,355 had their blood pressure monitored in health-care facilities.

Overall, people who monitored their blood pressure at home had lower blood pressure levels and more of them achieved their blood pressure targets.

Because home blood pressure monitoring is generally reliable, feasible and acceptable to patients, it could help get patients more involved in the management of their own blood pressure and to control it more effectively, the study authors concluded.