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Blood pressure measurements in the nursing home: are they accurate?
H T Stoneking1, K M Hla, G P Samsa
1Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC.
The Gerontologist
|August 1, 1992
Abstract:
To examine the accuracy of blood pressure (BP) measurements in the nursing home, a trained observer (physician) and nursing home staff (NHS) measured BP for 146 nursing home residents on two separate occasions. Using the physician as the reference standard for measuring BP, the NHS: 1) significantly underestimated systolic BP; 2) significantly overestimated diastolic BP; and 3) had a high frequency of terminal digit preference for zero. These errors resulted in the NHS misclassifying hypertension in 21% of patients.