arm vs wrist blood pressure monitor
It’s possible to find a relatively accurate wrist monitor, but you’ll need to do a little research.
Many blood pressure devices available commercially have not been validated, Bali says, meaning they haven’t been independently verified to meet agreed-upon standards for accuracy. That’s a problem because these are medical devices, Bali says. “Our patients and their doctors are likely going to be using data from this device to make clinical decisions.”
The American Medical Association (AMA) offers the Validated Device Listing, which is a good place to start to find validated devices available in the U.S.
CR also rates blood pressure monitors (members can see our full ratings here). While we do test for ease-of-use and convenience, the vast majority of a device’s rating comes from our test for accuracy, which is based on (though not identical to) U.S., British, and European standards for validating blood pressure monitors.
In our ratings, only seven arm-cuff monitors scored high enough to earn our recommendation, with a five out of five for accuracy. While no wrist-cuff monitors are recommended by CR, a few scored a four out of five for accuracy, making them reasonable choices if an upper-arm cuff is not an option for you, according to Sue Booth, who oversees blood pressure monitor testing at Consumer Reports. Of those, these two also appear on the Validated Device Listing.