Value of Asking About Family History of Heart Disease

Family history of premature heart disease is a recognized cardiovascular (CV) risk factor, yet data on the value of systematically asking patients about it in primary care are scant. Researchers in the U.K. randomized 24 primary care practices to either a usual-care approach, in which patients were stratified into standard Joint British Societies 2 (JBS2) categories of 10-year CV risk (average, <10%; moderate, 10%–19%; high, ≥20%), or an intervention in which patients also completed questionnaires about family history of premature heart disease. If family history was positive (coronary disease in a male first-degree relative aged <55 or a female first-degree relative aged <65), JBS2 risk level was multiplied by 1.5 (a multiplier that is sup…