The monumental Framingham Heart Study begins with exclusively people of European American background.
At the time, very little is known about coronary heart disease, so the US Public Health Service funds a longitudinal study to identify determinants. Research later expands to look at genetic patterns and risk factors for other illnesses as well. Framingham is selected as the study site because it is believed to be representative of a typical American community and is in close proximity to cardiologists in Boston. Framingham conveniently also has experience with large-scale public health work after the Tuberculosis Demonstration. The Original Cohort of the Heart Study comprises 5,209 Framingham residents, both men and women, of European American background. They are selected using random sampling; two out of every three families in town receive an invitation.
The original findings published in 1961 are groundbreaking. By 1998 the 'Framingham risk score' is developed to predict an individual's risk of developing coronary heart disease within the next ten years. Different iterations of the risk score have been released as research continues. A criticism of the score is that the "magnitude of the associations [of risk factors to CVD] differs significantly for several risk factors among race/ethnic groups;" while novel, the findings can not necessarily be extrapolated to people not of European American descent.
