Creating a family health history chart can help prevent serious illness. Start by talking to close family members and note illnesses and causes of death. Include important factors like smoking and ethnic origins. Review with a family physician for medical screening.
A family health history chart is a type of family tree that includes information about health and illness. Taking the time to research your family’s health history can help future generations prevent serious illness. To begin building a health family tree, start by talking to close family members like parents, grandparents, and siblings.
Ask these family members about any illnesses or complications they have been dealing with. Write down the types of illnesses each person has encountered. Once immediate family members have been interviewed, move on to aunts, uncles, cousins, and other distant relatives. Tracing a family health history back to great-grandparents is ideal. Also, don’t forget to note the cause of death for each deceased family member.
Specific diseases and illnesses to look for include heart disease, cancer, diabetes, asthma, mental illness, stroke, high blood pressure, kidney disease, alcoholism, inclined disabilities, birth defects, and blindness or deafness. Since all these ailments are serious in nature, it is best to pay close attention to these diseases.
If any family members have current health problems, be sure to include important factors such as whether or not a person smokes and what type of cancer a family member has. Also, note the family’s ethnic origins by listing each family member’s birthplace; some diseases are directly linked to certain ethnic groups.
There is no set standard for actually constructing a family history chart. Most people distinguish between men and women in a graph by drawing square shapes to represent men and circular shapes to represent women. However, this format isn’t rigid, and creating a chart that simply makes sense is the best course of action.
For those people who cannot trace a family’s medical history due to deceased family members, death certificates, medical records, and other identifying information can be helpful. Even looking at old family photographs can provide some clues about the overall shape of deceased family members. In fact, gathering as much detail as possible is the goal when creating a family health history.
Once you’ve gathered a wealth of information about your family’s health, take the time to review the family’s health details with a family physician. If any type of medical screening is needed, a qualified medical professional will be able to arrange these tests. Gathering family health information is important for staying healthy, preventing disease, and learning about your family roots.
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