The examination of 40-59 year-old males in Moscow, Kaunas, Minsk, Tashkent, Frunze in the framework of a cooperative study on multifactorial prophylaxis of coronary heart disease has shown that the disease and its risk factors such as arterial hypertension, smoking, hypercholesterolemia, excessive body weight and low physical activity are wide-spread among the male population of all the five cities, 75-83% of all the subjects examined thus being in need of preventive measures. Preventive measures against risk factors carried out in Moscow, Kaunas and Minsk already in the first 2 years have shown the possibility of reducing the incidence of arterial hypertension in the population (in Moscow by 7.8%, in Kaunas by 6.1%, in Minsk by 9.8%), smoking (in Moscow by 7.9%, in Kaunas by 8.1%, in Minsk by 14.8%), hypercholesterolemia (in Moscow by 4%, in Kaunas by 4.9%, in Minsk by 8.4%).