Framingham Heart Study Offspring

Objectives:

The objectives of the Framingham Offspring Study are to study the incidence and prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and its risk factors, trends in CVD incidence and its risk factors over time, family patterns of CVD and risk factors. Less prominent but important objectives include the estimation of incidence rates of disease and description of the natural history of cardiovascular disease, including the sequence of clinical signs and systems that precede the clinically recognizable syndrome, and the consequences and course of clinically manifest disease.

Background:

With the aging of the Framingham cohort and with interest in familiar aggregation and heritability, a new cohort consisting of the offspring of the original cohort was sampled. Spouses of offspring were also included. This new sample, begun in 1971, constituted a second generation of participants, permitted new assessment of risk factors and outcomes, and provided a resource for the genetic analyses which were yet to come. The Offspring participants have had repeated examinations, though at longer intervals than the cohort.

Subjects:

5,124 men and women, ages 5-70 years at entry consisting of offspring of the original Framingham cohort (and spouses of the offspring) participated in the study.

Design:

By 1975, a sample of 5,124 men and women, consisting of offspring of the original Framingham cohort (and spouses of the offspring) had participated in the study. Additional studies of these subjects continued under research contracts. Participants have completed six examinations with intervals of four to six years and have been followed for morbidity and mortality over that time period.

The cardiovascular disease conditions under investigation include coronary heart disease (angina pectoris, myocardial infarction, coronary insufficiency and sudden and non-sudden death), stroke, hypertension, peripheral arterial disease and congestive heart failure.