Medical history of your family is vital for your family tree. The Main purpose of health tree is to understand the danger of diseases. Medical history of your family will be famous as a family health tree. It contains the record of medical conditions and illness impact members of your family.
How to Use the Medical History of Your Family?
Everyone inherits his/her genetic profile from every parent. This information will determine your appearance. You will inherit genes that increase the risk of particular medical conditions. Moreover, your family history may indicate the risk level of particular health conditions for you. It will be easy for you to identify basic patterns that would be appropriate for your health. Here are some uses of your medical history.
- Evaluate the risk of particular diseases.
- Suggest changes in lifestyle and diet habits to decrease the danger of disease.
- Recommend treatments and medications to decrease the danger of disease.
- Determine the right diagnostic tests.
- Find out whether family members or you should get a particular genetic test.
- Identify different health conditions.
- Identify the level of risk among other family members to develop a particular disease.
- Evaluate your danger of passing health conditions on your kids.
Medical history of your family may not predict your future health. It offers essential information about danger. Some other factors are exercise routine, exposure to ecological factors, weight and diet. This information may impact your chances of developing particular diseases.
How to Collect Family Medical Information for Family Health Tree?
To develop a medical history of your family, you have to work together with your family. Feel free to start this project at your family gathering, including reunion or holiday. Some people may find it uncomfortable to disclose medical information.
Fortunately, computerized tools are available to create a medical history of your family. You can use your computer to compile the health history of your family. It is not acceptable to guess an answer if the cause of death or disease is unknown. A wrong guess may impact the interpretation of medical history. You will need medical information about your biological parents.
Information to Include in the Medical History of Your Family
Remember, the history of your family must include almost three generations. You will need information about your aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, parents, grandparents, nieces, grandchildren, nephews and children. For every person, you have to collect the following data:
- Date of birth
- Sex
- Ethnicity
- Medical conditions
- Pregnancy complications, such as congenital disabilities, infertility, stillbirths, or miscarriage
- Mental illnesses, such as substance abuse and alcoholism
- Age at the time of diagnosing a disease
- For dead relatives, you have to check the cause of death and age (when a person died)
- Different lifestyle habits, such as tobacco use, exercise and diet
You have to concentration to different conditions that develop earlier, including high blood pressure in adulthood. Moreover, it is essential to check the intensity of health conditions that impact multiple relatives. Make sure to include important information about family members of your father and mother.
It is crucial to consider the intrinsic details of your parents, such as China, Africa, Germany, etc. This information is helpful because several health issues frequently occur in particular ethnic groups. Here are some strategies that will help you if your family has reluctance.
Share the Purpose
To create a family health tree, you have to explain the reason for creating this record. It will help you to find out the right health conditions and particular diseases. You can share medical history with other family members. It will help them in their treatment as they can share it with their physician.
Answer Important Questions
Some people are ready to share information about their medical history. Feel free to collect this information through a face-to-face interview. Moreover, you can also collect information by email, mail or phone.
Carefully word each question to keep them concise and short. You have to become the best listener for your relatives. Motivate your relatives to share their health issues and listen to them without comment and judgment. It is essential to respect the privacy of your relatives and respect their confidentiality rights.
Beneficial Information Sources
It is easy to collect information about the health history of your family through different sources. Check your family documents, including old letters, baby books, and records from worship places, obituaries, and current family trees.
Death certificates, marriage licenses and birth certificates are suitable sources of information. You can collect this information from public records. If your family members have electronic health records, you can use them for your family tree.
Final Verdict
The main purpose of health tree is to help your doctor in reviewing your overall health condition. After creating a family tree, you can share its copy with your doctor. Your doctor will ask essential questions to interpret your data.
Update the medical history of your family with the birth of each child and the death of every family member. It may need efforts and time to create a family tree and improve the health of your family for upcoming generations.
