Meisel SF, Carere DA, Wardle J, Kalia SS, Moreno TA, Mountain JL, Roberts JS, Green RC. Explaining, not just predicting, drives interest in personal genomics.
Genome Med 2015;
7:74. [PMID:
26269719 PMCID:
PMC4533947 DOI:
10.1186/s13073-015-0188-5]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2015] [Accepted: 06/15/2015] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Background
There is a widespread assumption that risk prediction is the major driver of customer interest in personal genomic testing (PGT). However, some customers may also be motivated by finding out whether their existing diseases have a genetic etiology. We evaluated the impact of an existing medical diagnosis on customer interest in condition-specific results from PGT.
Methods
Using a prospective online survey of PGT customers, we measured customer interest prior to receiving PGT results for 11 health conditions, and examined the association between interest and personal medical history of these conditions using logistic regression.
Results
We analyzed data from 1,538 PGT customers, mean age 48.7 years, 61 % women, 90 % White, and 47 % college educated. The proportion of customers who were ‘very interested’ in condition-specific PGT varied considerably, from 28 % for ulcerative colitis to 68% for heart disease. After adjusting for demographic and personal characteristics including family history, having a diagnosis of the condition itself was significantly associated with interest in genetic testing for risk of that condition, with odds ratios ranging from 2.07 (95 % CI 1.28-3.37) for diabetes to 19.99 (95 % CI 4.57-87.35) for multiple sclerosis.
Conclusions
PGT customers are particularly interested in genetic markers for their existing medical conditions, suggesting that the value of genetic testing is not only predictive, but also explanatory.
Electronic supplementary material
The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13073-015-0188-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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