can blood pressure be taken over clothing

Blood Pressure Cuff Used Over Clothing - When having your blood pressure measured, the cuff should always be placed directly on your arm. Studies have shown that clothing can impact a systolic blood pressure from 10 to 50 mmHg.

Most people do not realize their blood pressure is constantly changing minute by minute in response to mood, activity, body position, etc. In fact, simple changes can cause blood pressure to fluctuate between 5 and 40 mmHg. Here is a list of 10 factors that can temporarily cause significant deviations in your blood pressure measurements.

Sleeves have no effect on blood pressure results. Blood pressure readings taken over the sleeves will be much more practical and time saving in busy departments like emergency rooms, during disasters like earthquake where decisions have to make in minutes. Additionally, it will be time saving for general health screening surveys. Finally, it may have preferable because of hygiene concerns, patient privacy and religious beliefs

Measuring blood pressure with the manometer’s cuff over participant’s sleeved arm did not differ significantly from non-sleeved arm measurements.