Best blood-pressure monitors

You don't need a prescription to buy an at-home blood-pressure monitor. But before spending $40 to $150, you should talk with your physician about whether you need one, and check with your health-insurance carrier to determine if the cost may be covered.

Sales of blood-pressure monitors in mid-June increased nearly 19 percent compared with a year ago, according to Information Resources, a Chicago market-research firm. One reason may be that the American Heart Association and other medical groups announced in May 2008 that people with hypertension or suspected high blood pressure should routinely monitor themselves. Good candidates for at-home monitoring include:

• Seniors, whose blood pressure can vary;
• People who experience "white-coat hypertension," a spike in blood pressure when they are tested in a doctor's office or hospital; and
• People with diabetes, for whom tight blood pressure control is important.

"People need to play an active role in their own health care, and managing high blood pressure is a very important first step," says Timothy Gardner, M.D., past president of the American Heart Association and medical director of Christiana Care's Center for Heart and Vascular Health in Newark, Del. He and other experts we interviewed said home monitoring empowers patients by giving them a sense of control that motivates them to partner with their doctors and stick with their treatment regimen.

More patients need to monitor themselves at home, and it's important that they choose the best blood-pressure monitor for their needs, including devices that will provide accurate readings. "If you have high blood pressure and you don't treat it, you're much more prone to developing heart disease, stroke, and kidney problems," Gardner says.

When we tested the top-selling home monitors for our 2008 report, we obtained approximately 6,000 readings from 57 men and women. In this update, we've dropped most discontinued models and added Ratings for three new models based on readings from 32 men and women. We compared the results of the home monitors with those obtained by pairs of trained testers who used a mercury sphygmomanometer, the standard instrument for recording accurate blood-pressure readings. In our analysis, only models with readings that met criteria based on both U.S. and international standards were judged excellent for accuracy.

Six models received Excellent accuracy and overall scores and two models received Poor accuracy and overall scores in our blood pressure tests (for subscribers).