PUBLIC HEALTH AND FAMILY HISTORY OF DISEASE: A NARRATIVE REVIEW

Family history is one of the simplest pieces of health information available to individuals and publichealth systems, yet it is ofte overlooked. A family can share genes, behaviours, food practices, living  environments, social conditions and patterns of health-care use. As a result, diseases that appear to  “run in the family” are not always caused by a single inherited mutation. Many common conditions— including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, several cancers, asthma and some mental -health  conditions—reflect a mixture of genetic susceptibility and environmental or behavioural influences.