Comparison of Measurement Accuracy of Aneroid, Digital, and Mercury Sphygmomanometer

Abstract

The aim of this study was to compare measurement accuracy of both Digital sphygmomanometer and Aneroid sphygmomanometer with Mercury sphygmomanometer (gold standard). The objectives of the study were to evaluate agreement between the measurements of Aneroid and Digital sphygmomanometer with the measurement of Mercury sphygmomanometer; and to evaluate the diagnostic utility of Aneroid and Digital sphygmomanometer. This study was conducted on 108 nursing students by using quantitative approach. The blood pressure (BP) measurements were recorded by Mercury, Aneroid and Digital sphygmomanometers with time interval of 5 min and the observations were recorded in BP recording sheet. Statistical analysis showed positive correlation and good agreement (0 to 12/ -10 to 2) between Aneroid and Mercury Sphygmomanometer but Digital sphygmomanometer measurements (-14 to 2 / -2 to 2) showed poor agreement with Mercury sphygmomanometer. The Aneroid sphygmomanometer was found to have high sensitivity (50.0%) than Digital sphygmomanometer with sensitivity (11.1%) which was comparatively low. Use of Aneroid sphygmomanometer can be considered as an effective practice for measurement of BP than Digital sphygmomanometer as shown by its positive correlation and diagnostic utility with Mercury sphygmomanometer.

Keywords: Digital, Aneroid, Mercury, sphygmomanometer, measurement accuracy

Cite this Article

Bhatt P, Arora S, Tamang EL, et al. Comparison of Measurement Accuracy of Aneroid, Digital, and Mercury Sphygmomanometer. Journal of Nursing Science and Practice. 2016; 6(2): 28–32p.