The proportion of people achieving a healthy behavior change is shown in Table 2, along with the mean change in each of the individual health behaviors. No significant differences in any CVD risk factors were found at baseline between categories of health behavior score (data not shown). As shown by Model 1, alcohol consumption was the only health behavior that was independently associated with CVD incidence over 5 years, adjusting for age and sex. Individuals who continued to drink alcohol, or who increased their consumption in the year after diagnosis, had a higher rate of CVD than those who abstained or reduced their alcohol consumption. Additionally adjusting for social class and occupation, and mutually adjusting for changes in other health behaviors strengthened the association between change in physical activity, alcohol intake, and CVD risk. Individuals who increased their physical activity levels, or abstained or reduced their alcohol intake, had a lower CVD risk compared with those who decreased their activity levels (RR 0.53; 95% CI 0.29–0.96) or who consistently drank or increased their alcohol consumption (RR 0.40; 95% CI 0.21–0.78), respectively. Further adjustment for the prescription of cardioprotective medication did not attenuate the association between changes in physical activity, alcohol consumption, and CVD events (Table 2).