Division of Public Health Sciences, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO 63110, USA.
Patient Educ Couns. 2012 Aug;88(2):291-7. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2011.11.013. Epub 2011 Dec 23.
Family history contributes to risk for many common chronic diseases. Little research has investigated patient factors affecting communication of this information.
1061 adult community health center patients were surveyed. We examined factors related to frequency of discussions about family health history (FHH) with family members and doctors.
Patients who talked frequently with family members about FHH were more likely to report a family history of cancer (p =.012) and heart disease (p < .001), seek health information frequently in newspapers (p < .001) and in general (p < .001), and be female (p < .001). Patients who talked frequently with doctors about FHH were more likely to report a family history of heart disease (p = .011), meet physical activity recommendations (p = .022), seek health information frequently in newspapers (p < .001) and in general (p < .001), be female (p < .001), and not have experienced racial discrimination in healthcare (p < .001).
Patients with a family history of some diseases, those not meeting physical activity recommendations, and those who do not frequently seek health information may not have ongoing FHH discussions.
Interventions are needed to encourage providers to update patients' family histories systematically and assist patients in initiating FHH conversations in order to use this information for disease prevention and control.
家族史是许多常见慢性病的危险因素。很少有研究调查影响患者交流此类信息的因素。
对 1061 名社区卫生中心的成年患者进行了调查。我们考察了与家庭成员和医生讨论家族健康史（FHH）的频率相关的因素。
经常与家人讨论 FHH 的患者更有可能报告家族中有癌症（p=.012）和心脏病（p<.001）病史，更频繁地在报纸（p<.001）和一般情况下（p<.001）获取健康信息，并且更有可能为女性（p<.001）。经常与医生讨论 FHH 的患者更有可能报告家族中有心脏病（p=.011）病史，更符合身体活动建议（p=.022），更频繁地在报纸（p<.001）和一般情况下（p<.001）获取健康信息，更有可能为女性（p<.001），并且在医疗保健中没有经历过种族歧视（p<.001）。
有某些疾病家族史、不符合身体活动建议的患者以及不经常寻求健康信息的患者可能没有持续进行 FHH 讨论。
需要采取干预措施，鼓励提供者系统地更新患者的家族史，并帮助患者发起 FHH 对话，以便将这些信息用于疾病预防和控制。
