Genetics and Epidemiology
Pick one friend or family member and gather their family health history. Pick one
possible genetic risk for disease in that person and provide the following:
Gender, age
Genetic risk for
...
Genetics and Epidemiology
Pick one friend or family member and gather their family health history. Pick one
possible genetic risk for disease in that person and provide the following:
Gender, age
Genetic risk for a specific disease
Define the disease
Evidence to link risk to development
Identify if genetics is confounded or linked to any other epidemiological risk
factors for disease development that might be modified in this patient.
The person I picked for this week’s discussion is my mother. She is 56 years of age and
while she is taking care of her health, she does have some health issues. Her personal health
history consists of hypertension, MVP, heart arrhythmias, arthritis, and hyperlipidemia. My
mom smoked for about 4 years and quite cold turkey when she was pregnant with me. Both of
my great- grandparents died of heart related issues and my grandfather died unexpectedly from a
massive heart attack at the age of 72. With this information, I can definitely tell that heart
disease runs in my family and unfortunately I have already heart issues myself.
As stated, Heart disease is a major factor in my mother’s history as well as mine. While
my mom nor I can change our genetics, we can change other factors to prevent complication
associated with heart disease. Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the United
States with a strong link to family history (American Heart Association, 2015). Most genetic
heart conditions are inherited in an autosomal dominant pattern, meaning both men and women
are equally affected. In this pattern, 1 normal copy of the gene and 1 mutated copy of the
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