The study was renewed in 1993 to re-examine the 1,429 respondents (571 men, 912 women) with untreated, mean diastolic blood pressure < 95 mmHg at baseline, and again at follow-up, on changes in blood pressure during the intervening four to five years (1988-1992/93). The social variables included socioeconomic status, John Henryism, stress, and social support; the dietary variables included alcohol, sodium, potassium, and calcium; and the anthropometric variables included body mass index (BMI) and waist/hip ratio (WHR). With an emphasis on SES, physical activity, dietary habits, and cigarette smoking, the predictors of weight gain, and changes in patterning of body fat were also examined. Multiple linear regression was the primary analytic tool used to study these longitudinal relationships. In cross-sectional analyses which controlled for physical activity and other important variables, the roles of insulin resistance in mediating associations between obesity and blood pressure, and stress and blood pressure, were also examined.