Last week I met with a client for a home physical therapy visit and when I arrived they mentioned they were feeling a bit ‘off’. They explained to me they had just checked their blood pressure, heart rate and pulse oximeter and temp and couldn’t understand what was happening as their numbers, including blood pressure were ‘normal or good’.
Since I already had my bp cuff and other assessment tools in hand in my treatment bag, I decided to verify if their readings were accurate.
Measurement Results:
Their wrist worm blood pressure monitor: 118 / 74 (repeated again with their home wrist cuff 116 / 77)
My manual BP / with my cuff and stethoscope: 179 / 88 (repeated again with my iHealth arm cuff 176 / 86)
Their BP cuff was the problem. The other equipment they use was accurate and verified for pulse ox and body temperature but of note and to no surprise the heart rate reading that they were getting from their wrist worn blood pressure cuff was also giving them in inaccurate reading when compare to what I measured.
Bottom line: Don’t skimp on your home health monitoring equipment! Especially if you are tracking your heart health!!
Good news: My client is ok, we adjusted our treatment session and agreed they’d take action to reach back with their primary care physician to address this rise in blood pressure average and to replace their monitor with one that is validated to be accurate to continue home blood pressure monitoring.
They admitted to me they had ‘skimped’ and tried this ‘no name’ wrist worn BP monitor after receiving a coupon as part of promo sale for a hardware store. I’d not recommend this, by the way!
Instead, I suggested to shop around for sales certainly to save money but also purchase a blood pressure cuff that has been independently validated.
How do you know?
Watch the short video below to find out how to validate your blood pressure monitoring equipment choice for free using Validate BP.
Search for Validated Blood Pressure Devices Here
This video was part of a bonus resource I had provided as part of my Achieve Balance Course within a self help module on ‘Knowing Your Numbers’.
In the New Year I’ll be bringing this full course to Substack in a paid tier offering but if you want more information sooner certainly message me!
