Some wrist blood pressure monitors can be accurate if used exactly as directed. However, the American Heart Association recommends using a home blood pressure monitor that measures blood pressure in your upper arm and not using wrist or finger monitors.
Wrist blood pressure monitors are extremely sensitive to body position. To get an accurate reading when taking your blood pressure with a wrist monitor, your arm and wrist should be at heart level. Even then, blood pressure readings taken at the wrist are generally higher and less accurate than those taken at the upper arm. This is because the arteries in the wrist are narrower and shallower under the skin than those in the upper arm.
Some people cannot measure their upper arm blood pressure because they have a very large arm or find blood pressure measurements painful. In these cases, blood pressure measurement at the wrist is acceptable.
It is common for blood pressure readings taken at home on any type of monitor to be different from those taken at your doctor’s office. If you have a blood pressure monitor on your wrist, it’s a good idea to bring your blood pressure monitor to a doctor’s appointment. Your doctor can then check your blood pressure using a standard blood pressure monitor and a blood pressure monitor in the correct position in the same arm to check the accuracy of your wrist blood pressure monitor. Also make sure you are using a validated device.