Self-rated family health history knowledge among All of Us program participants

Abstract

Purpose: Disparities in access to genetics services are well-documented. Family health history is routinely used to determine whether patients should be screened for heritable conditions. We sought to explore variation in levels of self-rated family health history knowledge as a possible contributer to this disparity.

Methods: We performed a cross-sectional analysis of survey data from the All of Us Research Program. We compared the characteristics of participants who reported "None," "Some", and "A lot" of family health history knowledge using multinomial logistic regression.

Results: Self-rated family health history data were available for 116,799 participants. A minority of survey participants (37%) endorsed "A lot" of knowledge about their family health history (n = 43,661). Most participants (60%) endorsed "Some" family health history knowledge (n = 69,914) and 3% (n = 3224) endorsed "None." In adjusted analyses, those who indicated "Some" family health history knowledge or "None" were more likely to be assigned male sex at birth, identify as possible gender and sexual minorities, have a self-reported race other than White, have a lower household annual income (<$25,000), or report lower educational attainment (<high school graduate) than those who endorsed "A lot" of knowledge and the reference groups.

Conclusion: Family health history knowledge may be limited, especially among traditionally underserved populations.

Keywords: All of Us Research Program; Cross-sectional analysis; Family health history; Healthcare disparities; Survey research.