Comparison of Acceptability of Traditional and Novel Blood Pressure Measurement Methods

Blood pressure (BP) monitor technology has developed significantly over the past years with the introduction of smaller and quieter home and ambulatory monitors that can both measure BP at night. The acceptability of different BP measurement methods using modern monitors is currently unknown. The purpose of this study was to compare patients' acceptability of traditional and novel BP measurement methods using up-to-date monitors.

A population sample of 223 participants underwent 4 office measurements on 2 occasions, a 24-hour ambulatory monitoring and 4 home measurements on 7 consecutive days with home nighttime (home-night) measurements on 2 nights. The acceptability of each method was evaluated with a questionnaire. Analysis of variance with post hoc Bonferroni correction was used to compare mean acceptability scores.

Mean acceptability score, with a lower score indicating better acceptability, decreased from ambulatory (3.11±0.93) to home-night (2.74±0.81) to home (2.20±0.70) to office (1.95±0.63) measurements (P < 0.001 for all between-method comparisons). The largest between-method differences were observed in comfort of use and disturbance of everyday activities (P < 0.001). 73.1%, 31.8%, 1.3%, and 2.2% rated office, home, home-night, and ambulatory measurements as the most acceptable method, respectively.

In the general population and under a research setting, office BP measurement was the method most preferred by the participants while home measurement was the second most preferred. Home-night measurement was slightly more preferred than ambulatory monitoring. However, before home-night BP measurement can be widely promoted as an alternative method for measuring nighttime BP, more evidence of its prognostic significance is needed.