Blood Pressure Recording Practices Among Dental Hygiene Students

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare three different types of blood pressure (BP) recording devices (an automated arm cuff, an automated wrist cuff, and a manual cuff / stethoscope combination) for accuracy, patient comfort, and ease of operation.Methods: Three types of sphygmomanometers were tested on 150 study participants (n=150) obtained from the patients presenting for dental hygiene services at an urban dental school in the Midwest. Descriptive statistics were calculated for all variables of interest by cuff type. Repeated measures ANOVA using the Greenhouse-Geisser adjustment were used to test for differences in means in BP and rating measure by cuff type. Post-hoc comparisons using Tukey's procedure were calculated to determine pair-wise differences. An association between the cuff type and convenience rating was evaluated using the Chi-square test, and between cuff type and convenience rating using the Fisher's exact test.Results: There was a significant difference in systolic BP recording by cuff type (p<0.001). The automatic wrist cuff recorded an average of 11.30mm and 8.76mm HG higher systolic BP than the standard cuff and the automatic arm cuff respectively (p<0.001 for both). There was no significant difference in the systolic BP readings between the standard and automatic arm cuff (p=0.226) nor was there a significant difference in diastolic BP by cuff type (p=0.137).Conclusion: Blood pressure cuff readings with traditional sphygmomanometer and stethoscope or an automated brachial cuff are comparable while wrist cuff BP readings deviated significantly. For consistency in blood pressure readings, the three different cuff types are not interchangeable.