title: Family history assessment: strategies for prevention of cardiovascular disease.
abstract: Family history assessment can be used to combine population-wide health promotion and risk-reduction efforts with a high-risk, targeted approach to help reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Family history is an independent predictor of CVD, and the upper portion of the family history distribution explains a larger fraction of CVD in the population than can be explained by extreme values of other risk factors (e.g., blood pressure and cholesterol). A positive family history of disease captures the underlying complexities of gene-gene and gene-environment interactions by identifying families with combinations of risk factors, both measured and unmeasured, that lead to disease expression. Family history is a useful tool for identifying most prevalent cases of CVD and for population-wide disease-prevention efforts. A positive family history also identifies the relatively small subset of families in the population at highest risk for CVD who may benefit most from targeted screening and intensive intervention.
authors.affiliation: Cardiovascular Genetics Research Program, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Utah School of Medicine, 410 Chipeta Way, Room 167, Salt Lake City, UT 84108, USA. steve@ucvg.med.utah.edu
authors.forename: Steven C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Hunt
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gwinn
authors.forename: Ted D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Adams
mesh_terms: D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000235:genetics / Q000517:prevention & control*; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D005190:Family; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening; D008487:Medical History Taking; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011322:Primary Prevention; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D012307:Risk Factors