Virginia Department of Health Family History Initiative
Knowing your family health history can save your life. Many families have a history of health conditions such as cancer, diabetes, or heart disease. If there is a history of a particular condition in your family, you may be at greater risk of developing the condition.
The Virginia Department of Health has developed the Family Health History Form to make it easy for you to collect and record your family’s health information.
Click Here to download the Family Health History Form.
The form can be used to organize family history information. Simply download the form, print it out, and fill in the information.
We encourage families to complete a Family Health History on each family member and share their information with their family doctor.
Talk it up…
Write it down...
Pass it on…
Importance of Family Health History
Health care professionals have long known that certain diseases such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, sickle cell anemia, and hemophilia can run in families.
Knowing your family health history can help you stay healthy through earlier diagnosis and proper treatment. Tracing the illnesses suffered by parents, grandparents, and other blood relatives can help doctors predict the disorders for which individuals may be at risk.
This information may then allow doctors to make the best decisions to protect the health of you and your family.
National Family History Day - Thanksgiving
Beginning in 2004, Thanksgiving Day was declared National Family History Day by the U.S. Surgeon General to encourage families to discuss their health histories. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, although 96 percent of persons in the United States believe that knowing their family health history is important, only one third have ever tried to write it down.
More information about the U.S. Surgeon General’s Family Health History Initiative is available at http://www.hhs.gov/familyhistory
Virginia Family Health History Month, November 2008
To acknowledge the importance of family health history, Virginia joined the U.S. Surgeon General’s National Family Health History Initiative.
In 2008, Governor Timothy M. Kaine recognized November 2008 as Family Health History Month in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
We encourage families to collect family history information from relatives on Thanksgiving Day because it is a day when families repeatedly come together in a multigenerational manner.
Family Health History Poster
The 2008 proclamation of "Family Health History" month by Governor Kaine is the result of a joint project between Leadership Metro Richmond and VCU Department of Human and Molecular Genetics.
To help promote the importance of family health history, all high school students in the state were eligible to participate in a poster contest funded by the March of Dimes, Virginia Chapter.
The first prize artwork, which was selected from 80 entries, was created by a high school student at Norfolk Technical Center. The resulting poster has been replicated and circulated throughout the state.
Our hope is that this initiative will encourage Virginians to learn more about their family health history and enable them to make better informed lifestyle decisions to protect their well-being.
Click here to download the 2008 Family Health History Poster.
Genetics and Newborn Screening
Contact: Nancy Ford
109 Governor Street,
8th Floor
Richmond, VA 23219
Phone: (804) 864-7691
Fax: (804) 864-7721
