The San Antonio Heart Study 1 was a population-based survey of diabetes and cardiovascular risk factors in Mexican Americans and non-Hispanic whites conducted from 1979 to 1982. Participants included all men and non-pregnant women ages 24 to 64, who resided in households randomly sampled from three socio-culturally distinct neighborhoods of San Antonio. The low-income barrio residents were almost exclusively traditional Mexican-Americans. The middle-income neighborhood was ethnically balanced with equal numbers of Mexican Americans and Anglos whereas the upper income suburb was approximately 90 percent Anglo. Risk factors measured included obesity, glucose intolerance, hypertriglyceridemia, low levels of high density lipoprotein cholesterol, and blood pressure. The total number of people who were examined medically was 2,386, divided as follows: 1,288 Mexican Americans; 929 Anglos; and 169 other Hispanics such as Cubans. The San Antonio Heart Study 1 was designed to test the hypothesis that as Mexican Americans became progressively more affluent and accultured to mainstream United States culture, they would gradually lose their diabetic pattern of cardiovascular risk factors of obesity, diabetes, and hypertriglyceridemia.