Category: family history
2020: A Challenging Year of Progress for Genomics and Precision Public Health

It is time to wrap up an eventful 2020 which unfortunately was dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic. From January 2020 through November 2020, we saw a major increase in visits to our website (> 2.6 million views, compared to 2 million views in 2019 and 1.2 million views in 2018). In our year end blog, Read More >
Posted on by Leave a commentHappy Thanksgiving 2020: Family and Family Health History Are As Important As Ever

This Thanksgiving might not look the same as the ones before it, but some things haven’t changed. Even if you can’t see your loved ones in person, Thanksgiving is still a great time to talk to your family members about your family health history. Having one or more family members with a disease can mean Read More >
Posted on by Leave a commentHappy Thanksgiving 2019: Collect and Share Your Family Health History: It Could Save Your Life!

Happy Thanksgiving Day! It is time for our yearly message on the importance of family health history to your own health. Year after year we promote the value on family health history around Thanksgiving day and all year round. By knowing and acting on your family history, you can reduce your disease risk and actually Read More >
Posted on by Leave a commentHappy Thanksgiving 2018: Protect your family’s health by using My Family Health Portrait to collect and share your family health history

Happy Thanksgiving Day! It is time to send our yearly message on the importance of family health history to your own health. Every year we emphasize a slightly different version of this message. In 2017, we highlighted the simple fact that even in the age of genomics and precision medicine, family health history remains as Read More >
Posted on by Leave a commentAnnouncing a New CDC Home for the U.S. Surgeon General’s Family Health History Tool

On Thanksgiving Day 2004, the U.S. Surgeon General launched a national public health campaign called the U.S. Surgeon General’s Family History Initiative. The campaign quickly became a yearly event to raise public awareness about the importance of family health history, and encourage all families to learn more about their health histories. The initiative also launched Read More >
Posted on by Leave a commentThe Impact of Family History on the Public Health Burden of Diagnosed Diabetes, Undiagnosed Diabetes and Prediabetes in the United States: Using Family History for Diabetes Control and Prevention

This blog post is a summary of our recently published paper in Genetics in Medicine. Type 2 diabetes is a major public health problem in the United States and globally. Among adults 20 years and older, 9.2% have diagnosed diabetes (DD), 3.1% have undiagnosed diabetes (UD), and 36% have prediabetes (PD), a major precursor for Read More >
Posted on by Leave a commentHappy Thanksgiving 2017: Take time to collect, share, and act on your family health history, it may save your life!

Regular readers of this blog may have noticed that we have an almost identical message around each Thanksgiving Day. Collect, share, and act on your family health history! It seems every year we emphasize a slightly different version of this message. In 2016, we highlighted the emergence of new tools that can help consumers and Read More >
Posted on by Leave a commentTrends and Factors Affecting Utilization of BRCA Testing in the United States: The Need for Improved Surveillance

This blog post is a summary of two recent CDC papers on the trends in utilization of BRCA testing in the United States, and metropolitan-nonmetropolitan areas differences in testing. Women with pathogenic BRCA mutations have an estimated 45–65% risk of breast cancer and a 17–39% risk of ovarian cancer by age 70, as compared with Read More >
Posted on by Leave a commentHappy Thanksgiving: Collect & Act on Your Family Health History

As you celebrate Thanksgiving with your family this November, remember that this special day is also National Family Health History Day. Family health history is important to your health and can help you detect unique disease risks and manage them before becoming sick, or find the right diagnosis and treatments when you have a certain Read More >
Posted on by Leave a commentNational Family History Day 2015: Thinking globally and acting locally

Though you probably will not find greeting cards in stores celebrating this fact, Thanksgiving has been known as National Family History Day in the U.S. since 2004.  The Office of the U.S. Surgeon General and many federal, state and private partners have marked each year with events and announcements promoting the collection and use of family Read More >
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