Make sure it’s a nurse who takes your blood pressure!
A recent study in the British Medical Journal reported that blood pressure recorded by doctors was higher than that recorded by other health professionals. It was a big difference: 9 mm Hg systolic (the first number commonly given when reporting blood pressure) and 7 mm Hg diastolic. It’s not that doctors don’t know how to take blood pressure readings! Due to an affect called white coat hypertension, blood pressure measured in the clinic by doctors tends to be higher than that measured by nurses.
Is the lower blood pressure actually the correct blood pressure? A large study by La Batide-Alanore and colleagues (Journal of Hypertension) showed a similar difference between blood pressure readings made by doctors and nurses, with the added finding that the nurse recorded blood pressure was closer to the patient’s daytime average blood pressure (so-called ambulatory blood pressure) than the pressure recorded by the doctor.
That’s what the new BMJ study found, too: daily blood pressure readings outside of the clinic were very similar to what the nursing staff recorded in clinic. The new study also adds to our knowledge by finding two exceptions: Ambulatory blood pressure readings tended to be slightly lower for women than for men and lower in older people (>65 years) than in younger people. Also, the difference was similar whether the people studied were already on blood pressure medicines or not.
For a number of reasons, we seem to choke up a little in the presence of doctors. We're nervous about what they may tell us. Maybe we feel they're rushed and we feel rushed, too. Whatever the reasons, there is one thing for sure: Have confidence when a nurse takes your blood pressure. And, doc: Don’t take it personally.
(By the way, the British Medical Journal allows free access to research studies. If you want to read the full study, here's a shortened link: http://bit.ly/dswIbW .)
