Public Attitudes Toward Direct to Consumer Genetic Testing

Direct to consumer genetic testing (DTC-GT) is an emerging service that allows individuals to have their DNA tested without having to consult a healthcare provider. DTC-GT can provide insight into various aspects about an individual, including their health and ancestry. However, testing may pose pri...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:AMIA ... Annual Symposium proceedings 2019, Vol.2019, p.774-783
Main Authors: Ruhl, Grayson L, Hazel, James W, Clayton, Ellen Wright, Malin, Bradley A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Attitude to Health
Biomedical Research
Direct-To-Consumer Screening and Testing
Female
Genetic Testing - methods
Humans
Information Dissemination
Male
Middle Aged
Privacy
Socioeconomic Factors
Surveys and Questionnaires
United States
Young Adult
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Summary:Direct to consumer genetic testing (DTC-GT) is an emerging service that allows individuals to have their DNA tested without having to consult a healthcare provider. DTC-GT can provide insight into various aspects about an individual, including their health and ancestry. However, testing may pose privacy risks and yield distressing results. Despite the growing popularity of DTC-GT, public attitudes toward such services remain largely ill-defined. Using Amazon Mechanical Turk, we administered a web-based survey to over 1,000 individuals to obtain intuition into public attitudes about DTC-GT. S urvey questions were grounded in a literature review of people's views about DTC-GT. The results of the survey indicated that respondents were interested in DTC-GT as a possible way to gain insight about health, ancestry, and family relationships, as well as advance research. Despite this, respondents were concerned that DTC-GT companies and other users of their DTC-GT data would infringe upon their privacy.
ISSN:1559-4076