Running head: FAMILY HEALTH HISTORY
2
Family Health History
To obtain a comprehensible depiction of who patients are and what health concerns they
may face due to their own genetic or familial influences, clinical professionals of all kinds would
routinely record patients’ family medical history. According to the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) family members share more than just genetics, very often they share
environment, patterns of behaviors, and lifestyle choices.
Recording a family’s history can help
gauge a patient’s risk for certain health issues or disorders. According to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC), Knowing your family health history isn’t enough, acting on it by
staying connected to your family and communicating with them about their health is beneficial.
Following decades of public health education regarding the risk factors for several
common chronic diseases, all age groups including children now know that family history is one
of the most important risk factors in the development of health problems such as heart disease
and cancer [ CITATION CDC19 \l 1033 ].
Research in the past revealed family health history is
more effective than genetic tests predicting a patient’s risk in many of these disorders. This led to
a revolutionary shift in health care, “Family history risk assessment has been shown to be one of
the most effective tools for predicting what diseases an individual may be at risk for developing.”
[ CITATION CDC19 \l 1033 ].
Most of my family medical history provided in this chart was known to me prior to this
assignment. My family migrated to south Florida from a then third world, now developing
country. Access to a lot of resources and healthcare was very limited. Most of my family was
generous with the new information provided about their health mainly due to curiosity about how
