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Since atherosclerosis and essential hypertension are believed to begin asymptomatically in early life, much interest has recently been shown in the study of risk factor variables in children. Extensive information is now available on cardiovascular (CV) disease risk factor variables of children in a general population, somewhat comparable to information from similar studies of adults (Monograph 1978). Additional research is now providing longitudinal observations following time-course changes of CV risk factor variables (Voors et al. 1979b, Frerichs et al. 1979) and determining how levels during the pediatric years may relate to adulthood, when the risk of coronary heart disease or essential hypertension can be judged by morbid events. Although there is a lack of understanding of the clinical significance and aftermath of disease in children, such as it occurs in adults, there are certain advantages to studying children. Heretofore, most of the epidemiologic studies described adult disease during a time when biologic changes of risk factors are less obvious. For example, in adults, stature, body weight, and serum total cholesterol change relatively little when compared to the dramatic changes that occur in the developing infant or child (Berenson et al. in press). These temporal changes in children occur during life periods when clues to mechanisms responsible for different levels of risk factor variables are available. The observation of race and sex contrasts enhances the potential usefulness of a pediatric study.