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Components of the Adult Health History


Identifying Data:

  • Age

  • Gender

  • Occupation

  • Marital status

  • Source of history: usually the patient, but can be a family member or friend, if appropriate establish source of referral, because a written report may be needed

Chief:

  • The one or more symptoms or concerns causing the patient to seek care

  • Amplifies the chief complaint

  • Describes how each symptom developed

  • Includes patient’s thoughts and feelings about the illness

  • Putll in relevant portions of the review of systems, called “pertinent positives and negatives”

  • May include medications

  • Allergies

  • Habits of smoking and alcohol

  • which are frequently pertinent to the present illness

Past history:

  • Lists childhood illlnesses

  • List adult ilnesses with dates for at least four categories:

  • Medical

  • Surgical

  • Obstetric / gynecologic

  • Psychiatric

  • Includes immunizations

  • Screening tests

  • Lifestyle issues

  • Home safety

Family history:

  • Outlines or diagrams age and health

  • Or age and cause of death

of siilings, parents and grandparents

  • Documents presence or absence of specific illnesses in family

Personal and social history:

  • Describes education level

  • Family origin

  • Current household

  • Personal interests

  • Lifestyle

Review of systems:

  • Documents presence or absence of common symptoms related to each major body system

Use inspection, palpation, auscultation and percussion

Bates, Barbara. (1928). Guide to physical examination and history-taking. United States: Wolters Kluwer.


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