How To Choose A Blood Pressure Monitor
The Features To Look For In A Blood Pressure Monitor
There are a lot of blood pressure monitors to choose from on the market today, and there is a great temptation to either just buy the cheapest, or to spend a lot of money in the hope of getting a better monitor. As a pharmacy that has been selling blood pressure monitors for a number of years, here are the things we think you need to look at in order to choose the best buy for you.
- Clinical Validation: Blood pressure monitors don't have to pass any accuracy tests before they come onto the market, however some monitors have been independently validated by published trial or by the British Hypertension Society.
- Cuff Size: It is important to measure to check that the cuff size is suitable for you, otherwise you won't get accurate readings
- Extra Features: The more you pay for a blood pressure monitor the more features it will have, but this does not mean that it will give more accurate readings. Ask yourself if the features are worth the extra money and if you are actually going to use them, or do they just make things more complicated.
Basic Blood Pressure Monitors
If you have a medium size arm then basic blood pressure monitors offer very good value for money. They can be as accurate as the more expensive ones, and what you are paying more for are extra features, which you may or may not want.
Our best buy basic blood pressure monitor is the Omron M2 Basic
£17.50
You Save: £30.00
Blood Pressure Monitors For Large Arms
If you have a large arm then the standard size cuff which is supplied with most blood pressure monitors will not give you a correct reading. The new Omron Comfort Cuff has the big advantage of being suitable for both medium and large arms. Also remember that if you share a monitor with anyone else, then the size must be right for everyone, so think about this if anyone has a particularly large or small arm.
Our best buy blood pressure monitor for larger arms is the Omron M6.
£47.95
You Save: £52.00
Blood Pressure Monitors With Extra Features
If you pay more you get more features but not necessarily more accuracy in a blood pressure monitor. These extra features can include -
- Remembering more readings in its memory
- Having different memories for different people
- Detecting irregular heartbeats
- Detecting if you move and make the reading inaccurate
- Working out averages for a number of reading
- Ability to download your readings to your computer and show them as a graph
Our best buy blood pressure monitor with all the extra features is the Omron M10-IT.
£49.99
You Save: £50.00
Wrist Blood Pressure Monitors
Wrist blood pressure monitors are much easier to use than upper arm ones, but can be less accurate as there is a much greater chance of you using them wrongly without realising it, which can give inaccurate readings. Their main problem is that you must hold the monitor steady and at the same level as your heart during the reading, which sounds easy, but in practice can be quite difficult to achieve.
Position sensing technology monitors the right position for taking the reading and tells you if it is inaccurate.
Wrist blood pressure monitors are not suitable if you have poor circulation in your hand or if you have a particularly large or small wrist, so check your wrist measurement before you buy.
A good buy wrist blood pressure monitor with basic features is the Omron R2
£34.99
You Save: £15.00
Our best buy wrist blood pressure monitor with a positioning sensor is the Omron R6
£79.99
You Save: £3.92
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