Comparison of clinic, home self-measured, and work self-measured blood pressures

Self-measured and clinic blood pressure (BP) estimates of patients' true le vels of BP were compared as part of a controlled study of stress management training for essential hypertension. Forty-three patients underwent 6 to 9 clinic measurements and made 48 self-measured readings of BP at home and a t work before and after treatment. Analyses showed that (a) self-measured B P values at work and at home were significantly correlated with each other but did not correlate with clinic blood pressure measurements at pretreatme nt, and (b) test-retest correlations over 2 months and intraclass correlati ons of self-measured BP measures were significantly higher than those of cl inic BP measurements. Findings indicated that self-measurement improved the estimations of patients' true levels of BP and improved the sensitivity an d feasibility of studies assessing the efficacy of antihypertensive treatme nts.