What information should be included in a family medical history?

If possible, your family medical history should include at least three generations. Compile information about your grandparents, parents, uncles, aunts, siblings, cousins, children, nieces, nephews and grandchildren. For each person, try to gather the following information:

• Sex
• Date of birth
• Ethnicity
• Medical conditions
• Mental health conditions, including alcoholism or other substance abuse
• Pregnancy complications, including miscarriage, stillbirth, birth defects or infertility
• Age when each condition was diagnosed
• Lifestyle habits, including diet, exercise and tobacco use
• For deceased relatives, age at the time of death and cause of death

Pay special attention to conditions that develop earlier than usual, such as high blood pressure in early adulthood, or conditions that affect multiple relatives.

Include information about where your mother's and your father's family members came from — for example, Germany, Africa, China and so on. This information can be helpful because some health problems occur more often in specific ethnic groups.

If you encounter reluctance from your family, consider these strategies:

• Share your purpose. Explain that you're creating a record to help you determine whether you and your relatives have a family history of certain diseases or health conditions. Offer to make the medical history available to other family members so that they can share the information with their doctors.
• Provide several ways to answer questions. Some people might be more willing to share health information in a face-to-face conversation. Others might prefer answering your questions by phone, mail or email.
• Word questions carefully. Keep your questions short and to the point.
• Be a good listener. As your relatives talk about their health problems, listen without judgment or comment.
• Respect privacy. As you collect information about your relatives, respect their right to confidentiality.