The proposed project is a 25-year follow-up of the Western Collaborative Group Study (WCGS), a well known prospective study in cardiovascular epidemiology. The WCGS, conducted from 1960 to 1969, confirmed the relationship between traditional risk factors for coronary heart disease (CHD) and CHD incidence, and established Type A behavior as an important new risk factor. The existing WCGS database consists of: (1) extensive medical and cardiovascular (CV) risk factor data collected at intake in 1960-61, (2) data on risk factors and cardiovascular disease (CVD) occurrence collected at 7 repeat examinations between 1962 and 1969, and (3) cause-specific mortality data collected in a follow-up survey conducted in 1982. The proposed 25-year follow-up will extend the existing database by adding current risk factor status, and CVD morbidity data collected by physical examinations and personal interviews. The new data will include physical and physiological variables, biochemical variables, health behaviors, medical and family history, and Type A behavior. In addition, the existing mortality records will be updated and used to determine cause of death and, where possible, the extent of CV pathology.
The Specific Aim of this 25-year follow-up are to: (1) evaluate the power of CVD risk factors, as measured in 1960, to predict CHD morbidity and mortality over 25 years; (2) evaluate the power of CVD risk factors to predict stroke; (3) evaluate the power of changes in CVD risk factors, as observed across the 7 repeat exams from 1960 to 1969, to predict long-term morbidity and mortality; (4) determine the cause of changes and interrelationships of CVD risk factors over the extended follow-up period; and (5) establish current status of CVD risk factors to explore their cross-sectional relationships to CVD prevalence and provide the basis for a potential future follow-up of an aging cohort.
