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"  We sent three volunteers and a nurse practitioner with a calibrated blood pressure cuff to four New Jersey pharmacies. Each person had his or her blood pressure taken three times by a pharmacy machine and three more times by our expert to get average systolic and diastolic readings for each person and method. We found:  INACCURATE NUMBERS Of the machines&amp;#039; 22 averaged readings, 10 were off by more than five points from those registered by our nurse practitioner. One woman&amp;#039;s machine readings averaged 106/66 versus our expert&amp;#039;s 127/83. We wondered if the machines&amp;#039; calibrations could be off, but we couldn&amp;#039;t find information on the machines, and the pharmacists couldn&amp;#039;t say when they&amp;#039;d last been serviced. We called customer service at Vita-Stat/Lifeclinic and were told machines were serviced annually unless a problem was reported; the rep couldn&amp;#039;t comment about specific ones. Another concern: Machines offer only one cuff size. Readings were less consistent and accurate on our smaller and larger volunteers; one petite woman got no reading at all from one monitor. INCOMPLETE INSTRUCTIONS Not one machine included the AHA&amp;#039;s advice to sit for five minutes before a reading. Two had outdated guide-lines for normal-range readings. OUR ADVICE If your doctor recommends that you track your blood pressure between visits, use a home blood pressure monitor every day at the same time, under the same circumstances. Tip: Ask your insurance provider if it will cover all or part of the cost. Picked up an at-home monitor? Take a look at our tips on how to properly monitor your blood pressure from the AHA. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/institute/a18272/blood-pressure-monitor-investigation/>