236 Li et al. Genetic Epidemiology 18:236–250 (2000) © 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc. Family Risk Score of Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) as a Predictor of CHD: The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study and the NHLBI Family Heart Study Rongling Li, 1 Jeannette T. Bensen, 2 Richard G. Hutchinson, 3 Michael A. Province, 4 Irva Hertz-Picciotto, 1 J. Michael Sprafka, 5 and Herman A. Tyroler 1 * 1 Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill 2 ARIC Forsyth County Field Center, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 3 Department of Medicine, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson 4 Division of Biostatistics, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 5 Epidemiology and Safety Surveillance, Procter & Gamble Co., Cincinnati, Ohio Family history of coronary heart disease (CHD) has been found to be a risk factor for CHD in numerous studies. Few studies have addressed whether a quan- titative measure of family history of CHD (family risk score, FRS) predicts CHD in African Americans. This study assessed the association between FRS and in- cident CHD of participants, and the variation of the association by gender and race. Participants in the study were a biracial population-based cohort with 3,958 African Americans and 10,580 Whites aged 45–64 years old in the ARIC baseline survey (1987–1989). They were randomly selected from four U. S. communi- ties. During follow-up (1987–1993), 352 participants experienced the onset of Contract grant sponsor: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; Contract grant numbers: N01-HC- 55015, N01-HC-55016, N01-HC-55018, N01-HC-55019, N01-HC-55020, N01-HC-55021, N01-HC- 55022, N01-HC-25107, and N01-HC-25108. *Correspondence to: Herman A. Tyroler, M.D., Department of Epidemiology, The School of Public Health, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Suite 306, NationsBank Plaza, CB# 8050, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-8050. E-mail: HTYROLER@aol.com Received for publication 6 December 1998; revision accepted 3 July 1999