This research will take advantage of an existing data base relating to 34,532 white California Seventh-day Adventists. Adventists voluntarily impose upon themselves the equivalent of a multiple risk factor intervention which exceeds the usual recommendations. We have a record of hospitalization from this population over a six-year period. Hospitalization records will be screened to find all cases of acute myocardial infarction or deaths attributed to ischemic heart disease. In addition, death certificates will be collected from an overlapping population of 47,956 persons during an eight-year period. We will be able to address the following important questions. Do differing dietary habits amongs Seventh-day Adventists predict differing rates of ischemic heart disease within this population? Does socioeconomic status, social support and bereavement, affect the risk of ischemic heart disease within this population? Do the effects of psychosocial factors on ischemic heart disease incidence depend on the habitual diet? Do Seventh-day Adventists share the recent reduction of ischemic heart disease mortality along with other Californians? Adventists were already non-smokers with low levels of serum cholesterol before the general reduction in mortality started. Do dietary and/or social support factors predict survival experience after a non-fatal myocardial infarction? Does this population with low levels of serum cholesterol and low mortality from ischemic heart disease (as shown by other studies), also have low rates of common cancers? This is relevant to the current cholesterol - cancer controversy.
