Because urinary albumin excretion (UAE) is a marker of cardiovascular (CV) risk, some have proposed screening the general population; however, it is unknown how the predictive power of a single screening value changes over time. In this study, data of 8496 individuals in a community-based, prospective cohort were used to evaluate this question. For each doubling of baseline UAE, the hazard ratio (HR) for a CV event was 1.36 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.31 to 1.42). Baseline UAE similarly predicted events occurring Ͼ5 yr after baseline, suggesting that it remains a good predictor during at least the first 5 yr after measurement. Approximately 4 yr after baseline, UAE was measured again in 6800 individuals. Once again, high UAE (Ͼ75th percentile) predicted subsequent CV events, whether defined using the baseline UAE or follow-up UAE (HR 3.39 [95% CI 2.58 to 4.45] and HR 2.50 [95% CI] 1.90 to 3.29, respectively; P ϭ 0.3 for difference). Finally, compared with individuals with consistently low UAE, individuals who progressed from low to high UAE during follow-up had a significantly higher risk for CV events (HR 3.68; 95% CI 2.45 to 5.53). In conclusion, UAE remains a good predictor of CV events during the first 5 yr after measurement, but repeating the measurement several years later also detects progression of UAE, which is also associated with increased CV risk. Future studies are required to determine the optimal interval of repeat testing and its cost-effectiveness. Elevated urinary albumin excretion (UAE) is a powerful independent predictor of cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality in the general population. 1-3 As we showed previously, microalbuminuria (urinary albumin concentration Ͼ10 mg/L) has a relatively high prevalence in the general white population, being approximately 7.2%. Although it is frequently stated that such an elevated UAE is mainly the consequence of diabetes or hypertension, approximately 80% of these individuals reported not to have diabetes or hypertension, and in only approximately 30% of these latter individuals could previously undetected diabetes or hypertension be shown. 4,5 Importantly, it has been shown that treatment associated with a decrease in UAE results in a reduction of the associated CV risk. 6,7 On the basis of these observations, implementation of screening programs in the general population to detect high UAE has been proposed. 8 As shown by the Prevention of Renal and Vascular Endstage Disease (PREVEND) study, mass screening of the general population for high UAE can be done relatively easily by the use of prescreening. 9 In this setting, individuals are initially asked to mail a portion of a first morning void urine sample to a central laboratory for measurement of albumin concentration or, alternatively, the albumin-tocreatinine ratio. Individuals who are found to have