A family health history is a written record of a family’s health. The history contains information about a family’s medical conditions, where and how family members grew up, family members’ lifestyle habits (for example, whether anyone in the family has smoked), and family members’ activities to promote their own health. It’s like a family tree for health. You can look online for examples of family health trees/portraits to see how you can create your own. Your family tree/portrait can be presented in a table format.
The first step in creating a family health history is to talk to your blood relatives. The most helpful information comes from ‘first-degree’ relatives — parents, brothers and sisters, and children. Information from ‘second-degree’ relatives — nieces, nephews, half-brothers, half-sisters, grandparents, aunts, and uncles — as well as less close blood relatives can also be used.
Questions to Ask:
To start, make a list of relatives to contact. See if there are any existing family trees, charts, or baby books. Important questions to ask your blood relatives include the following.
•What is your age or date of birth?
•Do you have any chronic conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes, asthma, or high blood pressure?
•Have you had any other serious illnesses, such as cancer or stroke? (If you know of a specific disease or illnesses in your family, ask about them, too.)
•How old were you when you developed these illnesses?
•Have you or your partner had any problems with pregnancies or childbirth?
•Do you engage in any unhealthy behaviors (e.g.,smoking)?
•What activities do you engage in to promote your health?
•Identify one goal for improving your health
Other questions to ask are:
•What countries did our family come from? (Knowing this can help because some heritable diseases occur more often in certain population groups. Also, different diets and living environments can influence the risks of developing certain diseases.)
•Has anyone in the family had birth defects, learning problems, or developmental disabilities, such as Down’s syndrome?
•What illnesses did our late parents or grandparents have? How old were they when they died? What caused their deaths?
