Many epidemiological studies have shown that low socioeconomic status individuals exhibit a higher prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors (such as smoking or low physical activity), and an increased incidence of and mortality from cardiovascular diseases. It is now recognized that an important perspective of research is to investigate the effects that the social characteristics of the residential context may have on cardiovascular health. Preliminary evidence indicates that people residing in socially deprived neighbourhoods have an increased risk of coronary mortality, beyond effects associated with individual factors. However, this literature has remained underdeveloped in France. Moreover, contextual studies exhibit important limitations: (a) most studies have not used the appropriate spatial analytic techniques allowing one to describe precisely the spatial distribution of cardiovascular diseases; (b) they have relied on cross-sectional rather than longitudinal data; (c) they have often only considered effects of the socioeconomic status of the context, neglecting other dimensions of the environment of residence; (d) they have defined the residential context using arbitrary administrative areas; (e) they have not investigated the mediating processes through which contextual factors may have an impact on cardiovascular health. In our past work, we have identified geographic variations in ischemic heart disease, though larger for mortality than for incidence. After individual-level adjustment, we found that geographic variations identified within large territories (such as a whole region) were related to population density, whereas spatial variations observed within urban areas were related to the neighbourhood socioeconomic status. Using French and Swedish data, we aim to better understand the processes leading to these observed spatial patterns of variations. Relying on inputs of sociology, geography, statistics, and epidemiology, we aim: (A) to increase our knowledge in the spatial distribution of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality; (B) to investigate the effects of the characteristics of the context on cardiovascular health by examining 1) what dimensions of the residential context are influent (population density, socioeconomic level, residential stability, social capital), 2) on what scales those contextual effects operate, 3) and whether they do so in a cumulative way over time; and (C) to develop a knowledge of the specific causal chains of mechanisms through which the residential context may affect cardiovascular health (we are especially interested in distinguishing between the different mediating pathways, such as modification of health-related behaviour and psychosocial processes). Our work may have important public health repercussions, in allowing policymakers to identify places with a higher risk of disease and tailor interventions adapted to the specific pathogenic mechanisms through which the context affects cardiovascular health.