social history-an integral part of case taking???

SOCIAL HISTORY AN INTEGRAL PART OF CASE TAKING:

Our  routine day in the out patient department starts with a brief case taking for the concerned patient.,diagnosing the condition employing  all the bookish knowledge gathered all along the medical education life.apart from considering natural case history of patient it is also better to include social history as a definite part of our case sheet.the practice of involving social factors as some inevitable causes for certain diseases like THYROID cases like GOITRE- having a link with the genetic make up of the individual and even the environmental influences like iodine levels in the soil, water etc  and a few of the communicable  diseases and respiratory conditions, plays an important role in finding the root cause of the disease.

• Inclusion of a small column signifying the social history into our regular case sheet pattern is  significant:

• It provides a general idea to the physician regarding the cause for larger  prevelance  of  the same disease and promote measures for prevention or cure.

• A complete record of the over all incidence rate and the severity of the condition would help  in better epidemiological surveillance and implementation of the treatment strategies at a faster rate.

Let the role of social history not just be a part of community medicine but also an important part of our out patient department . even implementing the same heading into the private heath system a part from the public system would be a great help to the rural health management.