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Commentary
Adult nursing
Not too big, not too small: blood pressure cuff size matters
  1. Alexandra Louise Thatcher1,2,
  2. Tomas James Welsh1,3,4
  1. 1RICE, Research Institute for the Care of Older People, Bath, UK
  2. 2Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust, Brockworth, UK
  3. 3Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
  4. 4Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust, Bath, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Tomas James Welsh, RICE, Research Institute for the Care of Older People, Bath, UK; tomas.welsh{at}nhs.net

https://doi.org/10.1136/ebnurs-2023-103893

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    Commentary on: Ishigami J, Charleston J, Miller ER 3rd, et al. Effects of cuff size on the accuracy of blood pressure readings: the cuff (SZ) randomized crossover trial. JAMA Intern Med. 2023 Oct 1;183(10):1061–8. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2023.3264.1

    Implications for practice and research

    • Implications for practice: the appropriate blood pressure (BP) cuff size should be selected for each patient based on arm circumference measurement.

    • Implications for research: investigation of barriers in National Health Service (NHS) settings preventing clinicians from choosing appropriately sized BP cuffs.

    Context

    Hypertension is the foremost risk factor for cardiovascular disease.2 Accurate measurement of BP ensures the right people get the right treatment at the right time, but errors are common. One often overlooked issue is selecting the appropriate cuff size. ‘Under-cuffing’ (using a too-small cuff) produces artificially raised BP readings while, ‘over-cuffing’ (using a too-big cuff) produces artificially low BP readings.2 Previous studies assessing the impact of …

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    Footnotes

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.