Mr. Cheng is a Medical Student at Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine in Miami. Dr. Castle is the Clinical Director of the Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center; Dr. Lee is Director and Ms. Blanchard is a Kinesiology Exercise Specialist of the Gerofit Program; and Mr. Segovia is a Research Associate, all at Greater Los Angeles VA Healthcare System in California. Dr. Lee is an Associate Professor of Medicine, and Dr. Castle is a Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Correspondence: Dr. Lee (cathy.c.lee@ucla.edu)
Author disclosures The authors report no actual or potential conflicts of interest with regard to this article.
Disclaimer The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of Federal Practitioner, Frontline Medical Communications Inc., the US Government, or any of its agencies.
Limitations
There were several limitations to the study. There was no specific protocol for the routine method of BP measurement, as it was intended to simulate the haphazard nature of office measurements. However, this approach limits its reproducibility. For home BP monitoring, it would have been ideal to provide the same calibrated, automated BP device to each participant. This study of older veterans may not be applicable to the general population. Finally, the relatively small number of participants in the study (n = 30) may have limited power in drawing definitive conclusions.
Future Directions
For future studies, comparing the standardized method to ambulatory BP monitoring would provide more information on accuracy. In addition, the authors would like to evaluate the effect of exercise on BP measurements in the different settings: home, standardized, and routine methods.
