Prevention is the most effective and efficient way of tackling cardiovascular disease and, similarly, cardiac rehabilitation programs are the most effective and efficient means of secondary prevention. The main objective of the metabolic syndrome working group is to increase understanding of cardiovascular risk in Spain by studying the occurrence of various risk factors, and the connections and associations between them, in economically active individuals. The group's first study and, subsequently, the MESYAS (Metabolic Syndrome in Active Subjects) study have led to significant and informative new findings, and continue to be produce data that can be used to improve disease prevention in everyday clinical practice. Furthermore, cardiac rehabilitation and secondary prevention programs for cardiovascular disease provide the most effective means of decreasing morbidity and mortality. However, it is worrying to observe that, in cardiological practice, there are significant gaps in compliance with scientific society recommendations on secondary prevention. On request, the coordinator of the cardiac rehabilitation working group has provided a report on the latest data and findings from across the full spectrum of activity in this vital area of disease prevention.