A longitudinal population study of 1462 women aged 38-60 was carried out from 1968-9 to 1980-1 in Gothenburg, Sweden. The initial and follow up examinations included questions concerning history of diabetes and antihypertensive treatment. A considerably increased risk of developing diabetes was observed for subjects with hypertension taking diuretics (895 patient years), subjects taking fi blockers (682 patient years), and subjects taking a combination of diuretics and blockers (281 patient years) compared with subjects not taking antihypertensive drugs (13 855 control years). When diuretics and , blockers were compared no difference was found in relative risk.Despite this increased risk, and because little is known about the relation between other forms of antihypertensive treatment and diabetes, diuretics and , blockers should remain the treatments of choice in arterial hypertension.

A representative population sample comprising 1,462 women was studied in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1968-69, and a third follow-up study was carried out in 1980-81. The participation rates in the baseline study and during the follow-up studies were high. In 1980-81 women in two new age strata, aged 26 and 38, were added. Women who had moved to or from Gothenburg during the study period were not found to differ from those who were living in Gothenburg during the total study period, while there were a few differences of statistical significance between refusers and participants in 1980-81. The mortality among initial refusers was about doubled compared to that of those who participated in the baseline study.

A study of a population sample of women in Göteborg aged 38--60 years was carried out in 1968--1969. This population sample has been re-studied during the years 1974--1975. Altogether 1302 women participated in this second study, which means 89.1% of those studied in 1968--1969 and 80.3% of those initially sampled. Twenty-six women had died during the interval between the two studies, more than half of them from neoplastic disease. Information is given about those who had moved or were inaccessible at the time of the second study or who refused to participate. The performance of the examination is described and research projects are outlined.

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Statistically significant differences were found between premenopausal and postmenopausal 50-year-old women for serum cholesterol, serum triglycerides, systolic blood pressure and body weight. Serum cholesterol and serum triglycerides were higher in postmenopausal women, while systolic blood pressure and body weight were higher in premenopausal women. When similar comparisons were performed between premenopausal and postmenopausal women in the other age strata studied, the differences were usually not statistically significant. In women of the same age, serum cholesterol was found to increase and systolic blood pressure to decrease with increasing postmenopausal time. Similarly, in women of the same age serum cholesterol and serum triglyceride levels were found to be lower in women who were to go on menstruating for another couple of years compared to women who were to have their menopause within the next few years.