It’s well-established that the anxiety that medical environments provoke in some people sometimes leads to abnormally high blood pressure readings.

But a study conducted in Japan holds promise for those with white coat syndrome: Blood pressure readings at home might be more effective than those conducted at the doctor’s office at predicting stroke or heart problems.

The study of 21,000 patients with high blood pressure found that, for those who tracked their blood pressure at home in the morning, a blood pressure of above 145 mm Hg or higher was associated with significantly more strokes than a blood pressure below 125 mm Hg.

The association between blood pressure level taken at the doctor’s office and strokes was slightly different, however. In those cases, it was patients with blood pressures above 150 who had significantly greater risk of stroke than those with pressures below 130.

Similarly, the blood pressure level associated with heightened risk of heart disease was lower for home tests than those taken at the doctor’s office.

But study author Dr. Kazuomi Kario of the Jichi Medical University School of Medicine in Shimotsuke, Japan, is not quite ready to say definitively that tests at the doctor’s office should be ditched entirely. BUt he did write in his conclusion that at-home morning high blood pressure readings “may be superior to clinical blood pressure” in predicting future cardiovascular problems and strokes.

In addition to lacking the stress of the doctor’s office, home readings offer patients the ability to constantly monitor their blood pressure, including fluctuations. That gives them a better opportunity to get a sense of their typical standard blood pressure. Oh, and it’s likely much cheaper for both the patients and all of us paying for the nation’s ballooning health care system.

Instant Insights /

Check blood pressure at home, not the doctor's office

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