Can Hypertensive Patients Tell When Their Blood Pressure is Elevated? A Cross-Sectional Study of 104 Patients.

A study was undertaken to see if a group of patients could estimate their blood pressure (BP). One hundred and thirteen hypertensive patients were asked whether they could tell when their BP was high, and if so, how. Patients were also asked to give a categorical and a numerical estimate of their current BP. We found that patients did not appear to be able to predict their BP any more accurately than they could be expected to by chance. Patients who predicted correctly, and those who were incorrect, used the same symptoms to predict elevated BP. These were headache, a feeling of warmth, nervousness, dizziness, and pounding heart.