This study began in 1948, a project of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, in collaboration with (since 1971) Boston University.
This study served as the foundation for a lot of current conventional understanding about heart disease, including the impact of food, exercise, and over-the-counter drugs like aspirin on heart health.
This study also helped to establish heart disease connection to high cholesterol and high blood pressure.

The Original Cohort for this study was composed of 5,209 men and women aged 30 to 62 from the Massachusetts town of Framingham who had not yet manifested any cardiovascular disease symptoms or experienced a heart attack or stroke. Since then, the study has added the Omni Cohort in 1994, the Third Generation Cohort in 2002, the New Offspring Spouse Cohort in 2003, and the Second-Generation Omni Cohort in 2003. Blood pressure, blood triglyceride and cholesterol levels, age, gender, and meticulous observation of the Framingham Study group over time have helped identify significant CVD risk variables as well as useful information on their effects.