Contact: Claudia Petruccio

Anecdotes and personal narratives have long served as a primary means for people to understand their past and pass knowledge and experience on to the next generation. Yet, public awareness of the relevance of oral traditions and family practices to health care is still very limited. The following family health history initiatives take a broad, community-based approach to family health history awareness.

Healthy Choices through Family Health History
The Healthy Choices through Family Health History project uses oral traditions and family stories as a bridge to meaningful engagement with family health history and genetics education. The project engaged folklorists, anthropologists, genetic education specialists and consumers in an effort to create a culturally competent and linguistically accessible tool for underserved populations that addresses environmental as well as genetic risk. The project, funded by the Genetic Services Division of the Maternal and Child Health Bureau/HRSA, and organized by the Institute for Cultural Partnerships (ICP), utilized a community-based approach, employing community liaisons to recruit and interview pilot participants. Specifically, this intervention was targeted at African American and Latino groups in the Allison Hill area of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, an area where health disparities have been documented, including a greater incidence of diabetes, hypertension, certain cancers and infant mortality. Partners include Genetic Alliance, The American Society of Human Genetics, and the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.

Guide to Family Health History (Click for PDF)
This Family Health History guide was created to reflect a more narrative approach to health education, using personal stories to convey the joint influence of genes and environment and the importance of knowing and sharing family health history. The guide offers four activities for gathering and organizing family health history, including general guidelines for discussing illnesses that may "run in the family" as well as specific instructions for conducing broad-based oral history interviews with family members that include family history as well as health history data.

Understanding Genetics and Disease (Click for PDF)
This guide offers users basic information about genetics, risk assessment, medical records and privacy rights, as well information on several common diseases with a genetic component, including sickle cell anemia, heart disease, diabetes, asthma and cancer.

Project Conference, May 2005 (Click here for full program)
Does it Run in the Family? Better Health through Family History Awareness, a two-day conference for consumers, health providers, advocates and educators, provided information about the vital connections between family history, culture and personal health. The conference also highlighted the importance of conveying genetic and health information in a manner that is community- focused and culturally appropriate.

Community-Centered Family Health History
Community Centered Family Health History, the next iteration of the Healthy Choices through Family History Awareness project, combines family health history, folklore, and genetics, in order to help individuals and families gather their health history and use that information to make positive health choices. The focus of the project is to use a community-based approach to test and distribute the Does It Run in the Family toolkit nationally. It is essential that the community and family focus of the first project be kept intact in order for the toolkit to remain effective. To this end, a group of diverse communities was recruited and a strong focus on customization and accessibility was maintained throughout the project planning. Partners include Institute for Cultural Partnerships, Seattle Indian Health Board's Urban Indian Health Institute, Intermountain Healthcare, National Council of La Raza, Alpha-1 Foundation, National Alopecia Areata Foundation, National Psoriasis Foundation, Colorectal Cancer Coalition, Appalachian Office of Justice and Peace, Iona College Social Work Department, American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, and American Society of Human Genetics