The VHM&PP is a population-based risk factor surveillance programme in Vorarlberg, the westernmost province of Austria. It is routinely performed by the Agency for Social and Preventive Medicine and addresses all adults of the entire province. From its outset in 1985, this ongoing extensive risk factor surveillance and treatment referral programme has comprised medical examinations of more than two-thirds of the entire population of this province. All adults of the regions were invited annually to participate by a combination of different measures such as written invitations, television, radio and newspaper reports. The programme addresses the tracking of classical cardiovascular risk factors, including body mass index, systemic blood pressure, glucose, serum lipids, and gamma-GT, in a healthy population of approximately 150,000 individuals examined repeatedly over a 15 year period 1985 – 1999, totalling over 450,000 examinations.