Published 22 December 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a2732
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a2732

Clinical Review

Blood pressure self monitoring: questions and answers from a national conference

Richard J McManus, clinical senior lecturer1, Paul Glasziou, professor2, Andrew Hayen, senior lecturer3, Jonathan Mant, professor 4, Paul Padfield, professor5, John Potter, professor 6, Emma P Bray, research fellow1, David Mant, professor 2

1 Primary Care Clinical Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston Birmingham B15 2TT, 2 Department of Primary Health Care, University of Oxford, Headington, Oxford OX3 7LF, 3 Screening and Test Evaluation Program, School of Public Health, University of Sydney, NSW 2006 Australia , 4 General Practice and Primary Care Research Unit, Institute of Public Health, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 0SR, 5 Department of Medical Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH4 2XU, 6 Faculty of Health, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ

Correspondence to: R J McManus r.j.mcmanus@bham.ac.uk

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.


Self monitoring of blood pressure is useful in the diagnosis and management of hypertension
Multiple measurements of blood pressure allow a better estimation of "true" blood pressure
Systematic reviews show that blood pressure is lower when self monitored
Self monitored blood pressure correlates better with risk of stroke than office readings
Patient education and clinically validated sphygmomanometers are prerequisites for effective self monitoring


Self measurement of blood pressure was introduced in the 1930s and is now practised by almost 10% of the general population of the United Kingdom.1 2 Because blood pressure monitors are now readily available and cheap (as little as £10; $15; {euro}11.8), self monitoring is likely to increase—in the United States and Europe up to two thirds of people with hypertension self monitor.3 At present we have insufficient evidence to make use of multiple blood pressure readings generated from home monitoring in clinical care. This review—which is based . . . [Full text of this article]


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  • McManus, R. J, Mant, J. (2009). Management of blood pressure in primary care. BMJ 338: b940-b940 [Full text]  

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