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Hopkins Study Finds Popular Blood Pressure App Wildly Inaccurate (jamanetwork.com)

Posted by timothy on from the yeah-ok-but-that's-only-one-kind-of-error dept.

An anonymous reader writes to point out a software review of the kind you can't generally find in an app store. A group from Johns Hopkins checked the accuracy of the Instant Blood Pressure app, which has sold more than 148,000 copies, and purports to measure blood pressure with just an iPhone -- no cuff required -- and found it wanting, to put it mildly. In the researcher's study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, the app missed elevated blood pressures four out of five times.

1 of 50 comments (clear)

  1. BP is difficult enough to measure as it is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Even if you measure your BP with the standard cuff, it's difficult to measure. Patient beware. Your BP can be thrown off by a number of factors such as recent caffeine intake, urinating, not urinating (because you're anticipating the need for a sample), nerves known as "white coat hypertension", and probably some other things I don't know because I'm not a doctor.

    If you have a high reading, I advise you to freak out like you're GOING TO DIE RIGHT NOW. Just kidding of course; but that's exactly the kind of dynamic that could get you placed on medication when you don't really need it.

    Likewise, don't ignore consistently high readings. Keyword--consistent. Obviously, don't listen to me. Listen to a lot of other people, especially doctors; but what I'm telling you is pretty much in line with consensus to the best of my knowledge.

    Bonus: that pinkish hibiscus tea? It's a natural diuretic. If you drink it and get tested, it could mask symptoms. Alternatively, it could act in tandem with your medication and bring your BP lower than you want it, causing you to get dizzy or even pass out.

    Anyway, IMHO it's not necessarily bad to have home testing; but you have to understand what it is you're measuring, how hard it is to measure, and what the measurements mean. I'd say the device might be useful if you can get consistent results, and then at some point you start getting a change for no good reason. Then, see a doctor; but you should probably be getting regular checkups anyway...