How should patients monitor their own blood pressure: a systematic review

Self-monitoring of blood pressure (SMBP) has the potential to better estimate underlying blood pressure (BP), is increasingly popular with patients, and is endorsed in hypertension guidelines worldwide. However, there is little agreement as to the optimal self-monitoring schedule. We systematically reviewed the literature regarding the optimum schedule for SMBP in terms of both prediction of future cardiovascular events and the relationship between the number of readings taken and true underlying BP, considering the number, timing and frequency of self-monitoring.