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There are certain things you make sure your child has before sending them to college: an insurance card, emergency contacts, prescriptions, and at least a basic understanding of what to do when they get sick. Then there are the things that may not make the packing list but matter just as much, like knowing their own major diagnoses, medications, allergies and immunizations, and understanding your family’s health history.
If a doctor asks whether heart disease runs in the family, would they know the answer? Could they say whether a relative developed cancer and approximately how old they were when it happened? Would they know that someone in the family tested positive for an inherited genetic variant? For many young adults, probably not.
That knowledge gap isn’t unusual. A 2026 study published in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine found that nearly 95% of adults surveyed believed knowing their family health history was important to their health, yet only 15% had actively collected that information from relatives. The transition to college offers a natural opportunity to start that conversation.
Why is it important to know your family health history?
Your family health history is a record of diseases and health conditions that have occurred among your relatives. Families share genes, but they may also share environments, habits, and other factors that influence health.
Having a family history of a condition does not mean that you or your child will develop it. But depending on the condition and the pattern within a family, that information may influence conversations with medical professionals about when certain screenings should begin, whether additional screening is appropriate, or if genetic counseling or testing should be considered.
Age at diagnosis can be particularly useful. For example, a grandfather who developed heart disease late in life presents a different family history than one who had a heart attack at 41. The same is true when several relatives develop the same or related cancers at unusually young ages.
The details your child should know
You don’t need to reconstruct every illness experienced by every relative before move-in day. Instead, help your child understand the information that could be useful when they’re filling out a medical history or talking with a healthcare provider.
For an important condition in the family, try to know:
- who had the condition
- what they were diagnosed with
- approximately how old they were at diagnosis
- whether multiple relatives had the same or related conditions
- whether anyone underwent genetic testing and, if so, what the results were
- age and cause of death, when relevant
- relevant ancestry or ethnicity information.
These details can help turn “I think someone in my family had cancer” into information a healthcare provider can actually use. Here are seven areas worth discussing:
1. Cancer
Cancer is common. Around 1 in 3 people will develop cancer in their lifetime, so having a relative who has been diagnosed with it doesn’t necessarily mean you have an inherited risk.
Related: Early cancer detection screens aren’t just for high-risk people
In fact, only an estimated 5% to 10% of cancers are caused by inherited genetic changes. Certain patterns can make hereditary risk more important to investigate, including cancer diagnosed at a young age, several relatives with the same or related cancers, or a known inherited cancer syndrome in the family.
Some cancers that can be particularly relevant to document include breast, ovarian, colorectal, prostate, pancreatic, and uterine cancers. Inherited changes in genes including BRCA1 and BRCA2 can increase the risk of several cancers, while Lynch syndrome is associated with an increased risk of colorectal, uterine, ovarian, and other cancers. If either has been identified in your family, or if a relative has tested positive for another inherited cancer-related genetic change, include that result in the family health history you share with your child.
Related: Colorectal cancer is surging in people under 50. The mystery is why.
2. Heart and vascular disease
“Heart disease runs in the family” is a start, but more useful is knowing what happened and when.
Make sure your child knows about close relatives who experienced heart attacks, strokes, sudden cardiac death, very high cholesterol, or aneurysms—particularly when those events occurred relatively early in life.
Early cardiovascular disease can sometimes point to an inherited condition. Familial hypercholesterolemia, for example, causes very high levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and increases the risk of developing coronary artery disease at a younger age.
Aneurysms can also cluster in families. If close relatives have been diagnosed with aortic aneurysms or brain aneurysms, that is worth including in the family record and discussing with a healthcare provider.
Related: Is your heart healthy and strong?
3. Brain and neurological conditions
Family history can also be relevant for certain brain and neurological conditions. Brain aneurysms are one example, particularly when two or more first-degree relatives have been affected. In these higher-risk families, screening may be considered after discussion with a healthcare provider.
Other conditions are less directly inherited but still tend to occur more often within families. Multiple sclerosis (MS), for instance, isn’t passed directly from parent to child, but having a parent or sibling with MS can increase risk. Stroke history can also be relevant, especially when a relative had one before age 65.
And if your family has a diagnosed inherited neurological or neuromuscular disorder, such as Huntington’s disease, spinal muscular atrophy, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, Friedreich’s ataxia, or a muscular dystrophy, include the specific diagnosis in your family record.
Related: What happens to your brain as it ages?
4. Kidney disease
Rather than trying to memorize a list of rare kidney disorders, focus on patterns. Pay particular attention to diagnoses that appear across several relatives or occur at a young age. Also document any known inherited kidney condition, such as polycystic kidney disease, Alport syndrome, or Fabry disease.
Be as specific as you can. The name of a diagnosed condition is much more useful to keep in your family record than a vague recollection that someone had “kidney problems.”
Related: Kidneys: the unsung hero of the human body
5. Hormonal and metabolic conditions
Type 2 diabetes commonly runs in families. Having a parent or sibling with the condition is one factor healthcare providers may consider when assessing a person’s risk. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists having a parent or sibling with type 2 diabetes among its recognized risk factors.
Reproductive and hormonal conditions can also have familial patterns. Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome (PMOS), for example, tends to run in families, and having a biological relative with the condition may be relevant to a person’s own health history.
Related article: This is why PCOS was renamed PMOS
6. Autoimmune conditions
Autoimmune diseases arise from a complex combination of genetic and environmental factors, and some tend to cluster in families.
Make note of diagnoses including rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, autoimmune thyroid disease (such as Hashimoto’s or Graves’ disease), Crohn’s disease, and ulcerative colitis, particularly when more than one relative has an autoimmune condition.
7. Mental health conditions
Mental health has an important place in a family’s health history, too. Depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and other mental health conditions can occur more frequently within families.
This may also be the part of the family health history that’s hardest to talk about. Older generations may not have received a formal diagnosis, and some families may have avoided discussing mental health altogether. If there are known diagnoses in your family, sharing that information without judgment can help normalize the idea that mental health is part of health and something your child can discuss with a professional when needed.
How to build a family health record your child can actually use
You don’t need a perfectly constructed family tree or a binder packed full with medical records.
Start with close relatives. The CDC recommends gathering information about parents and siblings as well as extended relatives including grandparents, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and half-siblings. Write down what you know, be specific where you can, and take note of which side of the family the affected relative is on—maternal or paternal. This can be clinically meaningful when doctors evaluate for risk of certain cancers or inherited cardiovascular and neurologic conditions. “Grandma on mom’s side had breast cancer at about 46” is more useful than “one of your grandparents had cancer.”
The Surgeon General’s My Family Health Portrait is a free tool families can use to collect and organize their health history, update it over time, and create a copy that can be shared with relatives or healthcare providers. Alternatively, you can keep the information in a secure digital document or another format your family can easily update and access.
Don’t worry about making the record perfect before you share it. Family health histories are living documents. Start with what you know, note anything you’re unsure about, and add details as you learn them. The most useful record is one your family can actually find, understand, and keep current.
Why now is a good time to document it
When it comes to conversations about family history, it can be easy to file them away under the “that’s something I’ll have time to do later” category. But as the years go by, relatives pass away, families can lose touch, and remembering exactly what condition a relative was diagnosed with or how old they were when their heart problems started can become more difficult.
Research suggests those barriers are common. The 2026 study published in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine also found that around two-thirds of adults surveyed considered collecting their family health history somewhat or very difficult. Among those who encountered barriers, 76% said some relatives were no longer alive or that they were no longer in contact, while 46% said they didn’t know what information to collect.
You don't need to solve the entire family medical mystery in a weekend. But information that is relatively easy to ask for today may become much harder to find years from now.
What if you don't know your family's health history?
Start with what you do know. Ask relatives what they remember and write down new information as it becomes available. For some families, there may simply be significant gaps. Adoption, estrangement, death, limited access to information, and many other circumstances can make a detailed biological family history difficult or impossible to obtain.
If your family health history is incomplete, your child can still share the information they have with their healthcare provider. And an incomplete family history is still a family health history. You may know a lot about one side of the family and very little about the other. You may know that a grandparent “had memory problems” without knowing the diagnosis. Record what you know, distinguish facts from uncertainty, and leave room to add information later.
How to start the conversation this weekend
This doesn't need to become a formal family meeting that has your nearly grown child groaning, “Mommmm,” before you’ve made it through the first diagnosis. Bring it up over dinner, on a drive, or while you're working through the seemingly endless college checklist: “Before you leave, I want to make sure you know a few things about our family's health history in case a doctor ever asks.”
You don’t need to walk them through every family medical story. Focus on the details they’re most likely to need when talking with a healthcare provider. Talk through the major conditions that have occurred in the family, which relatives were affected, approximately how old they were, and any genetic testing results you know about.
Most importantly, give your child their own copy, or access to the digital document where you’re storing the information. A family health history isn't very useful if it exists only in a parent's memory when your child is sitting hundreds of miles away in a student health center.
Keep the record current as your family’s health history changes. When a relative receives a significant new diagnosis or the family learns something new, add it and keep your child in the loop.
College is often the beginning of managing more of life independently: money, meals, schedules, appointments, and healthcare. Knowing their family health history is one more way to help them take ownership of their health as they do.
What family history can’t tell you
Family history can help you understand what you or your kids may be predisposed to, but it can't show you what's happening in your body today. Routine checkups, guideline-recommended screenings, and proactive health services can provide additional information and help you monitor your health over time.
When family history suggests a possible inherited condition, your healthcare provider may recommend genetic counseling, genetic testing, or condition-specific screening based on your individual risk. For adults interested in additional information about their current health, imaging and lab testing can provide another layer of information. Prenuvo’s Whole Body Scan uses radiation-free MRI to look across major organs, the brain, spine, and more in under an hour and may help identify potential abnormalities.
Depending on what you want to understand more deeply, Prenuvo also offers more focused assessments for adults 18 and older. Body Composition Analysis provides information about muscle and fat distribution, including visceral fat and muscle symmetry. The Advanced Brain Health Scan provides additional information about brain structure and blood flow, while the Advanced Heart Health Scan, available at select U.S. locations, evaluates heart muscle function and can complement standard cardiac testing. Prenuvo’s lab panels measure blood biomarkers that can provide additional information about how key systems in the body are functioning.
These assessments are designed to complement, not replace, routine medical care or guideline-recommended screenings. Results should be considered alongside your medical history and discussed with your healthcare provider.
To learn more about a Prenuvo Membership or standalone services, book a call with the Patient Services Team.
