Prevalence of Americans reporting a family history of cancer indicative of increased cancer risk: estimates from the 2015 National Health Interview Survey

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• Alternative Title:
  Prev Med
• Personal Author:
  Kumerow, Marie T. ; Rodriguez, Juan L. ; Dai, Shifan ; Kolor, Katherine ; Rotunno, Melissa ; Peipins, Lucy A.
• Description:
  The collection and evaluation of family health history in a clinical setting presents an opportunity to discuss cancer risk, tailor cancer screening recommendations, and identify people with an increased risk of carrying a pathogenic variant who may benefit from referral to genetic counseling and testing. National recommendations for breast and colorectal cancer screening indicate that men and women who have a first-degree relative affected with these types of cancers may benefit from talking to a healthcare provider about starting screening at an earlier age and other options for cancer prevention. The prevalence of reporting a first-degree relative who had cancer was assessed among adult respondents of the 2015 National Health Interview Survey who had never had cancer themselves (n = 27,999). We found 35.6% of adults reported having at least one first-degree relative with cancer at any site. Significant differences in reporting a family history of cancer were observed by sex, age, race/ethnicity, educational attainment, and census region. Nearly 5% of women under age 50 and 2.5% of adults under age 50 had at least one first-degree relative with breast cancer or colorectal cancer, respectively. We estimated that 5.8% of women had a family history of breast or ovarian cancer that may indicate increased genetic risk. A third of U.S. adults who have never had cancer report a family history of cancer in a first-degree relative. This finding underscores the importance of using family history to inform discussions about cancer risk and screening options between healthcare providers and their patients.
• Subjects:
  Adult Breast Neoplasms Female Humans Male Medical History Taking Middle Aged Ovarian Neoplasms Prevalence Risk Factors Surveys And Questionnaires

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• Source:
  Prev Med. 159:107062
• Pubmed ID:
  35460723
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC9162122
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  CC999999/ImCDC/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  159
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:09e4defae2b0e265ae3cf8840ce6bfe1731f90af8710ac7225a4f59a88b4b10b
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/119217/cdc_119217_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 345.62 KB ]