Free blood pressure machines: Are they accurate? - Mayo Clinic

Public blood pressure kiosk machines, such as those found in pharmacies, may provide helpful information about your blood pressure. But public blood pressure machines can have limitations too. Their accuracy depends on many things, including correct cuff size and proper use. Ask your healthcare team for advice on using public blood pressure machines.

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It's important that the blood pressure cuff fits you well. The cuff is the band that goes around the upper arm. The cuffs on some public blood pressure machines may be too small or too large for some people. Using a blood pressure cuff that's too large or too small may give you an inaccurate blood pressure reading. So, you might think your blood pressure is fine when it's not.

Some machines measure blood pressure using a wrist cuff. A wrist blood pressure device may be as accurate as an upper arm monitor. But it needs to be fitted properly and checked with readings taken in a healthcare professional's office. A wrist blood pressure monitor must be placed directly over the wrist artery to get an accurate reading. The wrist artery is called the radial artery. The wrist must be positioned at heart level. Bending the wrist can cause incorrect readings.

Another concern is that some public blood pressure machines aren't standardized, which makes it hard to know how accurate they are.

It's best to have your blood pressure checked by a trained healthcare professional using an accurate instrument. When considering if you have low or high blood pressure, your healthcare team should consider the average of two or more blood pressure readings from three or more office visits.

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If you need more frequent blood pressure checks, your healthcare team can tell you how to monitor your blood pressure at home. Home blood pressure monitoring can be a convenient way to get regular blood pressure readings. Ask a healthcare professional to check your device for a proper fit and accuracy.

Don't stop or change your medicines or change your diet without talking to your healthcare team first, even if your home readings seem OK. Grocery store and pharmacy testing and home blood pressure monitoring aren't substitutes for regular health checkups.

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Home blood pressure monitoring provides important diagnostic information beyond in-office blood pressure readings and offers similar results to ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. Home blood pressure monitoring involves patients independently measuring their blood pressure with an electronic device, whereas ambulatory blood pressure monitoring involves patients wearing a portable monitor for 24 to 48 hours. Although ambulatory blood pressure monitoring is the diagnostic standard for measurement, home blood pressure monitoring is more practical and accessible to patients, and its use is recommended by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association. Home blood pressure monitoring generally results in lower blood pressure readings than in-office measurements, can confirm the diagnosis of hypertension after an elevated office blood pressure reading, and can identify patients with white coat hypertension or masked hypertension. Best practices for home blood pressure monitoring include using an appropriately fitting upper-arm cuff on a bare arm, emptying the bladder, avoiding caffeinated beverages for 30 minutes before taking the measurement, resting for five minutes before taking the measurement, keeping the feet on the floor uncrossed and the arm supported with the cuff at heart level, and not talking during the reading. An average of multiple readings, ideally two readings in the morning and again in the evening separated by at least one minute each, is recommended for one week. Home blood pressure readings can be used in hypertension quality measures.

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