Your doctor says your blood pressure looks fine. Your home cuff says otherwise. A new study suggests that gap, known as masked high blood pressure, could put older adults at a higher risk of falling.
Researchers presented the finding at the American Heart Association’s Hypertension Scientific Sessions 2026 in Arlington, Virginia, according to the AHA’s release. Adults older than 78 with masked hypertension had a 70% higher risk of falls than peers with high readings both in the office and at home.
What the doctor’s office can miss
Masked hypertension means a normal reading at the doctor’s office but a high reading at home. The exam room gives a falsely comforting picture, and doctors can miss it entirely if they rely on office visits alone.
It is not the same as white coat hypertension, which runs the other way. Those patients spike at the clinic but are fine at home. The study tracked both groups, along with people with sustained high readings and people with normal readings.
Inside the numbers on masked hypertension
The study included 758 adults older than 78. About 34.5% had sustained high blood pressure. Another 17.0% had white coat hypertension, 15.4% had masked hypertension, and 33.2% had normal readings, Medical Xpress reported.
Over a median follow-up of 350 days, 23.4% of participants reported at least one fall in the previous 12 months. Each person’s healthcare team collected the falls through self-reports during annual phone calls. Office readings were three measurements taken one minute apart after five minutes of seated rest.
One more detail stands out. Lower office blood pressure relative to home blood pressure was tied to more falls. The wider the gap in that direction, the worse the picture looked.
Here’s the thing: why this matters for your family
Falls are the leading cause of disability and functional decline in adults 65 and older, according to the CDC. A broken hip can change a life overnight. Blood pressure problems rarely announce themselves, a point that also runs through the story of the sharp rise in stroke rates among younger adults.
Most of us think of low blood pressure as the fall culprit, because it can cause dizziness or fainting. This study points to the opposite problem, one that can hide in plain sight. Also, 82% of participants were already on blood pressure medication, so this is not about people who skipped treatment.
“Preventing falls in elderly adults should be a top priority,” said lead investigator Frances Wang, Ph.D., of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. She added that home readings can be “an important way to identify hidden home high blood pressure and risk of falls in older adults.”
Read the fine print before you worry
This is a research abstract, not a finished paper. The AHA says such abstracts are not peer-reviewed and are preliminary until published in full. The data also leave questions unanswered.
The 70% figure compares masked hypertension with sustained hypertension, not with normal blood pressure. No absolute risk number was released. Falls were self-reported, so memory could skew the results. And association is not proof of cause.
Please don’t adjust anyone’s medication on the strength of a conference presentation. That is a conversation for a doctor.
How to catch hidden high blood pressure at home
The practical takeaway is modest and easy. Ask your doctor whether home monitoring makes sense, especially for an older parent or grandparent. The AHA notes that home monitors are becoming more accessible, and it says the findings align with its 2025 joint guideline on high blood pressure. Wearables are moving into this space too, as with the RingConn smart ring’s FDA-cleared blood oxygen monitoring, though a validated upper-arm cuff remains the standard for blood pressure.
The full peer-reviewed study is still to come, and no date has been announced. Until then, a home cuff may deserve a place next to the pill organizer.
