The importance of your family health information
| MY NAME: | FAMILY NAME: |
Many common disorders such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer and mental illness can run in families. If you have knowledge of your family health history, it may be possible to predict, prevent or treat health problems that have affected previous generations.
On the following pages you will find an example of a simple family health history, recorded both as a table and as a family tree. This is a record of family illnesses with important details which may help your doctor to diagnose and prevent health problems by recognising patterns of illness that may run in your family.
Recording your family health history
Record all current and past health problems, noting if possible the year and or age at which a diagnosis was made or a family member died. Start with your own health record and that of your family members including your parents, brothers and sisters, grandparents and your children (if any). It is important to note the health history of your relatives on both your mother's side and your father's side of the family. Then add the details of your partner's family. Where you have had more than one partner, also record their details if possible.
Try to complete 3 and preferably, 4 generations for each side of your family and your partner (or partners) family. To get this information, it may mean that you have to consider contacting family members with whom you are seldom in contact. Of course it may not always be possible to know or find out the health history of every family member for a number of reasons, including adoption, lack of family contact or missing medical information.
When you have completed your family's details on the table at the back of this brochure, record the date and take it to your doctor for advice about any possible inherited condition in your family.
Some common health problems you may wish to explore:
| asthma |
eye disorders |
miscarriage |
birth defects |
heart disease |
muscular or skeletal disorders |
blood disorders |
high blood pressure |
neurological disorders |
cancer |
high cholesterol |
osteoporosis |
chromosome disorders |
infertility |
skin disorder |
cystic fibrosis |
kidney disease |
still birth |
deafness |
liver disease |
thalassaemia |
diabetes |
mental illness |
other |
epilepsy |
mental retardation |
Sharing your family health information with your doctor
It is important that your doctor is kept up to date on your family health information. As new information becomes available, add it to your chart, record the date you updated the information and share it with your doctor.
Often the patterns that run in families can best be seen if put in the form of a family health tree as drawn in this brochure. You may like to do this for yourself, working from your health table, or simply take the table of information to your doctor.
Further information
If you have any queries about how to record your details, specific genetic conditions or would like information about your closest genetics service, please contact the Centre for Genetics Education.
The Centre's website also contains information sheets about basic genetics and some more common genetic conditions.
Health details of the people in the Dawson family tree
| Relationship to me |
Person's name// |
Date of Birth (b)/ |
Past or present health problems, age at and/or year of diagnosis or cause of death |
Me |
Jason Dawson (m) |
b 15.9.1970 | Spina bifida (from birth) |
My mother |
Megan Chang (f) | b 17.7.1939 | Diabetes type 1 (age 15, 1955) |
My father |
Richard Dawson (m) | b 3.10.1935 |
|
| My sister | Jodie Dawson (f) | b 5.8.1973 | Breast cancer (age 29, 2002) |
| My child | Amelia Dawson (f) | Miscarried 15 weeks 1999 | |
| My uncle (mother's brother) | Frank Chang (m) | b 10.1.1942 | Bowel cancer (age 53, 1995) |
My aunt (father's sister) |
Patricia Dawson (f) | b 17.11.1937 | Breast cancer (age 40, 1977) |
My cousin (aunt's son) (father's sister's son) |
Simon Dawson (m) | b 23.7.1975 |
Down syndrome |
| My niece (sister's daughter) | Skye Dawson (f) | b 22.12.1998 | |
| My mother's mother (maternal grandmother) | Amy Chang (f) | b 15.6.1920 | Blood pressure, arthritis (hip replacement) |
| My mother's father (maternal grandfather) | Roger Chang (m) | b 17.10.1918 | Asthma (from when a child) |
| My father's mother (paternal grandmother) | Mary Dawson (f) | b 19.1.1919 | Ovarian cancer (age 40, 1959) |
My father's father (paternal grandfather) |
Peter Dawson (m) | b 20.5.1919/ d 18.7.1995 |
Died from heart failure |
| My partner | Juliet Romano | (f) b 25.2.1972 | |
| My partner's sister | Alexandra Romano (f) | b 1.9.1975 | |
| My partner's mother |
Elizabeth Romano (nee Watson) (f) | b 4.4.1950 | Schizophrenia (age 30, 1980) |
My partner's father |
Peter Romano (m) | b 11.12.1948 | |
| My partner's aunt (partner's father's sister) | Mary Rivers (nee Romano) (f) | b 5.3.1949 | Chronic fatigue syndrome (around 1976) |
| My partner's cousin (partner's aunt's son) | Sam Rivers (m) | b 21.7.1967 | |
| My partner's mother's mother (partner's maternal grandmother) | Jacqueline Watson (f) | b 18.12.1929 | Diabetes Type 2 |
| My partner's mother's father (partner's maternal grandfather) | Alfred Watson (m) | b 8.8.1929 | |
| My partner's father's mother (partner's paternal grandmother) | Isabella Romano (f) | b 28.3.1928 | Arthritis |
| My partner's father's father (partners paternal grandfather) | George Romano (m) | b 5.11.1923/ d 13.5.1990 |
Died from a stroke |
| Date drawn | Updated on | Updated on |
| MY NAME: | FAMILY NAME: |
Health details of the people in my family tree
| Relationship to me | Person's name/ |
Date of Birth (b)/ Death (d) |
Past or present health problems, age at and/or year of diagnosis or cause of death |
| Me | |||
| Date drawn | Updated on | Updated on |