Inheriting heart trouble: the relevance of common-sense ideas to preventive measures

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the cultural norms and common-sense ideas about inherited health and inherited heart trouble that were encountered during field research in an urban neighbourhood of South Wales. These data are related to the attitudes of professional and scientific groups, and in particular to the current emphasis placed on lifestyle modification. The relationship between lay ideas of genetic and environmental heredity on the one hand and the possibility of personal risk reduction on the other is explored.