Table 1.

BP measurement procedure in the participating cohorts.

Study	Measurement period	WHO protocola	Arm used	Different cuff sizes	Body position	Measurement device	Repeated measurements	Final BP
FINRISK	1992, 1997, 2002, 2007	No	Right	No	Sitting	Manual mercury SM	2–3b	Mean (1st–2nd)
DCH	1993–1997	No	Right	Yes	Supine	AOD	1–2c	1st
HUBRO	2000–2001	No	Right	Yes	Sitting	AOD	3	Mean (2nd–3rd)
60-year-olds	1997–1999	No	Right	Yes	Supine	AOD	2	Mean (1st–2nd)
SDPP	1992–1994, 1996–1998	No	Either	Yes	Sitting	Manual SM	1	1st
SNAC-K	2001–2004	No	Left	Yes	Sitting, supine, standing	Manual SM	4	2nd
TwinGene	2004–2008	No	Right	Yes	Sitting	AOD, manual SM	2	Mean
EPIC-Umeå	1992–1996	No	Right	Yes	Sitting, supine	Manual SM	2	Mean
EPIC-MORGEN	1993–1997	No	Left	Yes	Supine	AOD	2	Mean
EPIC-Prospect	1993–1997	No	Left	No	Supine	AOD	2	Mean
EPIC-Oxford	1993–2001	No	Either	Yes	Sitting	AOD	1–2d	Last
HNR	2000–2003	Yes	Right	Yes	Sitting	AODe	3	Mean (2nd–3rd)
KORA	1994–1995, 1999–2001	Yes	Right	Yes	Sitting	Random-zero SM, AOD	3	Last
SAPALDIA	2001–2002	Yes	Left	Yes	Sitting	AOD	2	Mean
REGICOR	2003–2006	No	Right	Yes	Sitting	AOD	2f	Last
SM, sphygmomanometer. aHense et al. (1995). bTwo BP measurements were performed in 1992, 1997; three measurements in 2002, 2007. cIf the first measured BP value was considered abnormal, a new measurement was taken 3 min later; the lowest BP measurement was recorded as final. dBP was measured twice in a subset of 5,241 participants. eThe missing BP value with AOD was replaced with the value recorded with random-zero SM (in 34 participants, 0.7% of the sample). fIf the difference between the first and the second measurement was > 5 mmHg, a third measurement was performed.