Some home blood pressure monitors have memory storage
"Everyone who wants to know how well (their) blood pressure is controlled should monitor blood pressure at home," the study's lead author, Dr. Rajiv Agarwal of the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, told Reuters Health in an e-mail. He also likened blood pressure monitor to exercise treadmills, though. People may buy them with good intentions, but how they use them is what matters.
In their study, Agarwal and his colleagues found that home monitoring tended to work better when it was part of a general plan to adjust medications in response to the home readings. The conventional way to do that is to bring your blood pressure readings to your doctor at each visit; some home digital blood pressure monitors have memory storage that automatically records each reading and allows you to print out the information.
The findings are based on 37 clinical trials that included a total of 9,446 men and women with high blood pressure. In each, researchers randomly assigned some patients to use home sphygmomanometer and the rest to stay with office-based measurements. Most of the studies followed the participants for a few months to one year.