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If you're aged over 60 and being treated for high blood pressure, there's evidence you would be better off self-monitoring your blood pressure at home. If you're aged over 60 and being treated for high blood pressure, there's evidence you would be better off self-monitoring your blood pressure at home. In a recent study, nearly 5000 people were followed for three years. To check the chances of people dying from a heart attack or stroke, researchers compared the doctor's blood pressure measurement in the surgery to the person's own measurement at home. Allowing for the effects of other risk factors, the home measurements of blood pressure counted far more than the one's in the doctor's office. For every rise of 10mm of mercury in the top blood pressure figure, the risk of dying of stroke or heart attack went up by 17 per cent and for every rise of 5mm in the lower figure. The increased risk was 11 per cent. There was no such relationship in the office measurements. In fact if the pressure was high in the office but not at home, there was no increased risk of death from heart or brain attacks. Doctors wrongly thought that about one in ten people had normal blood pressure when in fact it was high. And around 13 per cent were thought to be high when they were actually under control. A re-think is needed by doctors.
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