The burden of disease due to coronary heart disease (CHD) and type 2 diabetes (T2D) is important in Mauritius and is likely to increase in the future. Like most common chronic diseases, CHD and T2D are multifactorial, having both environmental and hereditary components contributing to their pathophysiology. A previous genome scan carried out in Mauritian families of North-Indian origin affected by CHD and/or T2D unveiled several chromosomal regions harbouring positional candidate genes for these complex traits. Chromosomal 8q23 region was an interesting region where microsatellite markers showed simultaneous co-segregation with premature CHD, T2D and HBP in the families studied. The strongest candidate gene within that region appeared to be the Oxidation Resistance 1 (OXR1) gene, given the increasing role attributed to oxidative stress in the patho-physiology of T2D or CHD and the putative role of the mitochondrial OXR1 protein in protection against oxidative stress. The present study was carried out to evaluate the contribution of known variants in the positional candidate gene OXR1 to increase susceptibility to premature CHD and/or to T2D in a Mauritian population of North Indian origin.