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Family Medical History Reporting Spotty, Researchers Find
from the Los Angeles Times (Registration Required)
It's one of the first things you do at a doctor's visit--fill out a family medical history. But does providing this information actually do any good? Perhaps not.
In a new analysis, researchers funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality reviewed 137 studies on family history-taking. They set out to examine the pros and cons of collecting a family medical history; how well the history predicts an individual's risk of disease; and how accurately patients report it. The studies were performed between 1995 and March of this year.
The results showed that few studies actually examined these questions. Overall, there was not even enough evidence to say how history collection affects patients' outcomes. What the researchers did find was that patients tend to report the absence of disease in relatives better than the presence of disease.
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