Family Genetics Health Education and Healthy Behaviors

Lifestyle behaviors, such as diet and physical activity, have been linked to the development of a number of diseases, including cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. Adopting a healthy diet and other preventive health practices are effective ways to reduce associated diseases. However, cancer, diabetes, and heart disease are etiologically complex with multiple risk factors (e.g., genetic, environmental, lifestyle) that tend to cluster in families. Thus, families are an important social context for intervention and lifestyle-focused disease prevention. Our previous research indicates that intergenerational encouragement can motivate behavior change and parents and women tend to be natural encouragers of health behaviors. Therefore, a mixed-method pilot study will be conducted to explore how dietary habits and healthy behaviors are transmitted across family generations and the motivational influence of family health history regarding diseases associated with overweight and diet on improving health behaviors. This pilot study will also assess participants comprehension of an intervention tool outlining family health history and disease risk assessment that will be used in a larger intervention study.

Participants for the paper-based Family Health Package (FHP) Evaluation Phase will be recruited from an existing database developed by the Immersive Virtual Environment Testing Area (IVETA) within the Social and Behavioral Research Branch, NHGRI, consisting of mothers in the Washington, DC area, and through local advertisement and posting on clinicaltrials.gov. Participants will complete a survey interview, providing us with a detailed family health history. From this information, we will create a paper-based FHP that will be sent to participants, consisting of a pedigree, disease risk algorithms, and health guidelines. Participants will be invited to complete a follow-up survey interview, and focus groups will be conducted with a subset of participants. Two initial focus groups will provide feedback on the feasibility and acceptability of the FHP materials. After incorporating revisions, an additional focus group will evaluate the FHP materials. All of the focus groups will also explore diet and health behavior through semi-structured questions. Thematic analysis will identify factors such as influences on health behaviors across generations and the potential impact parents have on initiating and maintaining food choices within their household and the influence of their family of origin on these choices. We have completed an evaluation of the FHP within a predominantly under-resourced, African American community. While the FHP was well received, participants suggested a need for an in-person, community-based, family history health education program centered around concepts presented in the FHP. To that end, we will develop and pilot test a health education program to introduce the FHP to the community. Additional evaluations may be conducted, as necessary, to improve the FHP and reach diverse populations.

The paper-based version of the FHP will be translated into an electronic version, the Family Health ePortal (FHeP). Participants for the electronic Family Health ePortal (FHeP) Evaluation Phase will be recruited from the general population through local advertisement and posting on clinicaltrials.gov. Eligible participants will be consented and invited to access the FHeP. The initial FHeP Evaluation Phase participants will access the FHeP individually to provide feedback on the feasibility and acceptability of the FHeP materials through surveys and a semi-structured interview. After incorporating revisions, subsequent participants will be asked to invite their family members to access the FHeP and evaluate the FHeP materials. FHeP participants will provide demographic, diet, and health behavior information through pre- and post-test surveys as well as survey items within the FHeP. Additional evaluation waves may be conducted, as necessary, to improve the FHeP and increase reach to diverse populations.

We anticipate that the outcomes of these evaluations will 1) provide us with an effective intervention tool for health education and minimizing disease risk within the family, and 2) inform future intervention research. Further study can be directed toward providing family members with appropriate tools to act as family genetic health educators in order to disseminate disease risk information and encourage health promoting behaviors.