This site is dedicated to the participants in the ARIC Study. By volunteering their time and by answering many questions, the ARIC cohort participants have greatly added to our understanding of the many factors that cause, and can prevent cardiovascular disease. Through their committment over many years, the ARIC participants are helping to improve lives in their own age group, and in the lives of generations to come.

Once a year on the anniversary date of your first ARIC examination, you are contacted by an ARIC field center staff member, who requests a brief interview. Although they usually take no more than five to ten minutes, these interviews are very important to the study. They tell us whether you are taking medications and whether you have seen a doctor or have been hospitalized. If you have not notified us of a change of address, these yearly calls allow us to find out if you have moved. As you know, occasionally we add a few questions to that annual interview, to allow the ARIC investigators to test new hypotheses that may increase our understanding of heart disease.

These annual phone interviews started in 1988. As shown in the graph below, your continuing commitment to the ARIC study is reflected in the high responses to these annual calls over the past two decades. When contacted by phone in 1988, approximately 99 percent of the ARIC cohort completed the annual followup interview. Twenty years after the start of the ARIC study, more than 90 percent of participants were still able and willing to respond to the annual call from their ARIC field center.

In summary, we value your high level of commitment to the ARIC study and look forward to seeing you at your next visit!