The client’s genogram will be analyzed in the context of health risk factors and their connection to family members. The family under analysis includes the mother’s and father’s sides of the family while focusing on grandparents, parents, and children. The most prominent traits that the investigation reveals are hypertension and heart disease, which seem to be prevalent on both sides of the family of the client.
All the family members of the client seem to suffer or have suffered from similar diseases and chronic conditions. As such, the client’s sister suffers from smoking and obesity, while their living father is also a smoker, which might be related to his heart disease, hypertension, and multiple heart attacks. The paternal line of the family likewise had heart disease. The causes of death for this line include hypertension (grandfather), alcoholism (grandmother), and diverticulitis (aunt). Moreover, the paternal grandmother has suffered from depression, which occurs to be genetic.
In turn, the deceased mother had a history of lupus and rheumatoid arthritis and died at 64 years of pancreatic cancer. The deceased members of the mother’s line died from hypertension (both grandmother and uncle) and had diabetes, obesity, and cardiac disease. The conditions that are present in this family are related to inadequate dietary choices and unhealthy habits. For example, diverticulitis, diabetes, obesity, and heart deceases are often caused by poor nutrition, while pancreatic cancer is caused by smoking (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d.; Xia et al., 2020). Thus, the diet and smoking are of concern for the client.
There are several genetic traits that are passed down over the generations. While lifestyle contributes significantly to the overall disease process, the client may be predisposed to developing a cardiac disease, which is present in both family lines. Diabetes is also present in the family history and appears to contribute to the cardiac condition. Studies reveal that diabetes is inherited and connected to one’s family background and genetics, but environmental factors also play a role (Tabackman, 2021). Furthermore, hypertension plays a role in the family history and contributes to cardiac disease and death from cardiac-related causes. Hypertension frequently runs in families: people with a hypertension-conditioned parent are more likely to get the disorder, especially if both parents are afflicted (National Library of Medicine, n.d.). One might assume that the client’s mental health may be affected by the presence of depression in one of the family members, but it does not seem to be genetic. Thus, the genetic conditions of the family include cardiac deceases, diabetes, and hypertension.
To conclude, the client’s family patterns include frequent early deaths from cardiac deceases, as well as conditions related to poor dietary choices and unhealthy habits. The client may not be aware of their family’s strong disposition for cardiac disease and hypertension, which they may have inherited. The client should make lifestyle changes to lessen their chances of developing a cardiac disease. Overall, the client has a family history of diabetes and obesity that may be avoided with lifestyle changes, attention to ideal body weight, and smoking cessation. With the end of smoking and the addition of more aerobic activity to increase her cardiovascular health, she may see significant decreases in her susceptibility to cardiovascular problems. Moreover, these changes might help the client prevent or lessen hypertension’s influence.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (n.d.). Poor nutrition. Web.
National Library of Medicine. (n.d.). Hypertension. MedicinePlus. Web.
Tabackman, L. (2021). Is type 2 diabetes genetic? Healthline. Web.
Xia, B., He, Q., Pan, Y., Gao, F., Liu, A., Tang, Y., Chong, C., Teoh, A. Y. B., Li, F., He, Y., Zhang, C., & Yuan, J. (2020). Metabolic syndrome and risk of pancreatic cancer: A population‐based prospective cohort study. International Journal of Cancer, 147(12), 3384–3393. Web.