Table 4.

Strengths and weaknesses of various methods used for quantifying blood pressure patterns over time.

Characteristic	Present (single-occasion) BP	Time-averaged BP	Cumulative BP	BP trajectory patterns	Age of hypertension onset
Association with CVD prognosis	+	++	++	++	++
Feasibility	+++	++	++	+	+++
Heritability	+	?	?	?	++
Reproducibility	+	++	++	+	++
Level of evidence	+++	++	+	+	+

Abbreviations: BP: blood pressure; CVD: cardiovascular disease.