[The "Vienna Health Study 79" (author's transl)].

As an introduction to the following special articles, backgrounds, aims and modalities of the "Vienna Health Study 79" are exposed. A sample of 2,800 citizen of Vienna at the ages of 25, 40 and 60 years was examined medically to assess age-specific prevalence figures of the most important chronic diseases and, additionally, of their relations to social and medical risk factors.