Health
Family-level Influences Have a Significant Impact on Individuals' Health
By American Academy of Family Physicians
Mar 30, 2005, 06:22

With health care systems increasingly focusing on the individual, new research out of the University of Texas Health Science Center shows the need for a concurrent focus on the family's role in health.

Analyzing data from more than 35,000 people who participated in the national Community Tracking Survey, researchers found that a significant proportion of general health status can be attributed to family-level influences.

Depending on the family configuration, the data indicate that between 4.5 and 26.1 percent of the variance in individual health status was derived from the family, with the shared characteristics of income and health insurance accounting for only a modest portion of the effect.

While the study does not seek to disentangle the contribution of specific family-level determinants to health status, because of the study design, the authors conclude that most of the family-level effects derive not from shared genetics but from shared features of the family environment, such as health beliefs and behaviors, physical environments, common stresses, and interpersonal relations that can be either beneficial or harmful to health.

The authors and two editorialists suggest that health policy interventions should place more emphasis on the family's role in health.

All rights reserved by www.rxpgnews.com