Are you among those people who prefer to measure their blood pressure at home on their own? Are you habituated to using wrist blood pressure monitors to keep track of your health? 

The compact model of wrist blood pressure monitoring device has made it a household device. This article will prove to be of great help to decide whether wrist blood pressure monitoring devices measure blood pressure accurately or not. Before we determine the accuracy of the digital blood pressure monitoring device, let’s know more about the digital wrist blood pressure monitoring device. 

What is a Wrist Blood Pressure Monitoring Device?

These are blood pressure monitoring devices wrapped around the wrist rather than the traditional forearm cuff blood pressure monitors. These devices are easy to use and carry. It can be used to check blood pressure and pulse rate at your home itself

Why do you need a Wrist Blood Pressure Monitoring Device?

It is essential healthcare equipment that should be present in every house. You can use it to keep a track record of your blood pressure at home. Whether you are athletic, have a history of hypertension, regular monitoring during pregnancy. 

If you closely want to monitor your blood pressure without the assistance of anybody, blood pressure monitoring devices are the best. It has made tracking blood pressure at home. It is a compact and portable monitoring device that can be kept handy, keeping your basic check on your health. 

How to Use Wrist Blood Pressure Monitoring Devices?

You are using a proper technique in the shear key in managing the accuracy of wrist blood pressure measuring devices. The accuracy rate becomes more questionable when you check your blood pressure at home. It is not just the way you monitor your blood pressure that is important but also how to use the apparatus essential m using a rest blood pressure monitoring device to ensure that it gives you an accurate reading, follow these simple steps:

• Stay still and calm: Before you decide to measure your blood pressure, stay still and quiet and avoid exercising, smoking, caffeine, and drinking for at least 30 minutes prior.
• Be consistent: Being consistent means checking blood pressure regularly at the same time and in the same place in the same chair position with your hand resting on the table such that your wrist is at the level of the heart if possible.
• Maintain your wrist and your heart at the same level: cross your heart. I rest your elbow on a table such that your wrist is at the same level as your heart to get an accurate reading.

Above all, ensure that the wrist cuff is tight enough so that the reading recorder by the device is accurate enough. 

Are Wrist Blood Pressure Monitors Accurate?

With wrist blood pressure monitors getting more and more popular among people as a great aid in measuring blood pressure at home, there pops the question: are wrist blood pressure monitors accurate? 

It has been observed that average blood pressure monitors do not give you an accurate reading. The readings obtained by using these devices tend to skew comparatively higher readings. The American heart association (AHA) is totally against using a wrist blood pressure monitor at home. Instead, they suggest the use of the conventional handcuff blood pressure apparatus. 

Why do wrist blood pressure monitors come with questionable accuracy?

There could be two possible reasons why the wrist blood pressure monitors are less accurate than the conventional upper arm handcuff blood pressure apparatus.

• The difference between the anatomy of the wrist and the upper arm: 

The blood vessels of the rest are comparatively thin and located more profoundly in the skin than those present in the upper arm. This makes it difficult for the rest blood pressure monitors to measure accurate readings

• User error: 

As already mentioned, it is not just about monitoring but also about using the instrument accurately. Though these devices are easy to use, it isn’t easy to position them correctly. People measuring blood pressure at home assume that they have to put the wrist blood pressure monitor around their arm and measure their blood pressure. 

However, that’s not the case. For an accurate reading, the level of your best and the heart should be equal with the elbow resting on a stable platform. 

Well, this means that the reading obtained from the wrist blood pressure monitoring device is likely to be inaccurate. The lesson being a little off indeed is not a problem until you check your blood pressure casually. 

Conclusion

Though we can say that the wrist blood pressure monitors are a good alternative for people who find it troublesome in using conventional upper handcuff blood pressure measuring devices, surely you cannot rely on its readings. For an accurate blood pressure reading, it is advisable to use the upper arm monitor.