Personal and family health history information can be used to assess familial risk of disease. For example, information can be collected about the disease history of a person and the person's first- and second-degree relatives and then analyzed to determine the familial risk of common diseases such as coronary heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and colorectal, breast, and ovarian cancer. Assessed familial risk of disease can then be used by researchers to better estimate the contribution of personal history and family history to the etiology and natural history of a disease of interest, and by consumers and health professionals to determine recommendations for disease management, prevention and screening that are personalized and targeted to the familial risk. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.
