Blood pressure cuffs really aren’t one-size-fits-all. To the contrary, a recent study suggests that people who get their blood pressure checked with a cuff that’s the wrong size for their arm circumference may have undetected hypertension or get incorrectly diagnosed with this condition.
For the study, researchers compared blood pressure readings for 165 adults who had separate measurements done with both a “regular” adult-size cuff and with a cuff appropriately sized for their arm circumference.
Overall, 30 percent of the study participants had hypertension, according to their systolic blood pressure.Slightly more than two in five people in the study had obesity. When these people who required an extra-large blood pressure cuff had measurements done with a “regular” adult size cuff, this inaccurately increased their systolic blood pressure readings by an average of 19.7 mmHg and their diastolic blood pressure readings by an average of 4.8 mmHg.
In 39 percent of these cases, people with obesity were misdiagnosed with hypertension as a result.Similarly, people who needed a “small” blood pressure cuff had hypertension that went undetected in 22 percent of cases when their measurements were done with a “regular” adult size cuff. When these people who needed a smaller cuff had measurements with a “regular” cuff, this inaccurately decreased their systolic blood pressure readings by an average of 3.8 mmHg and their diastolic blood pressure readings by an average 1.5 mmHg.
