This review found no clear or consistent evidence that genetic risk communication alone either raises motivation or translates into actual change in dietary intake or physical activity to reduce the risk of cardiometabolic disorders in adults .
Genetic risk prediction of chronic conditions including obesity , diabetes and CVD currently has limited predictive power but its potential to engage healthy behaviour change has been of immense research interest .
We aim ed to underst and whether the latter is indeed true by conducting a systematic review and meta- analysis investigating whether genetic risk communication affects motivation and actual behaviour change towards preventative lifestyle modification .
Impact of direct-to-consumer genomic testing at long term follow-up
Background There are few empirical data to inform the debate surrounding the use and regulation of direct-to-consumer ( DTC ) genome-wide disease risk tests . This study aim ed to determine the long term psychological , behavioural , and clinical impacts of genomic risk testing for common disease . Methods The Scripps Genomic Health Initiative is a prospect i ve longitudinal cohort study of adults who purchased the Navigenics Health Compass , a commercially available genomic test . Web based assessment s were administered at baseline , short ( 3 months ) , and long term ( 1 year ) follow-up . Results 2240 participants completed either or both follow-ups and a subset of 1325 completed long term follow-up . There were no significant differences from baseline in anxiety ( p=0.50 ) , fat intake ( p=0.34 ) , or exercise ( p=0.39 ) at long term follow-up , and 96.8 % of the sample had no test related distress . Longitudinal linear mixed model analyses were consistent with results of cross-sectional analyses . Screening test completion was associated with sharing genomic test results with a physician ( 36.0 % shared ; p<0.001 ) and perceived utility of the test ( 61.5 % high perceived utility ; p=0.002 ) , but was not associated with the genomic risk estimate values themselves . Conclusions Over a third of DTC genomic test recipients shared their results with their own physician during an approximate 1 year follow-up period , and this sharing was associated with higher screening test completion . Genomic testing was not associated with long term psychological risks , and most participants reportedly perceived the test to be of high personal utility
This review found no clear or consistent evidence that genetic risk communication alone either raises motivation or translates into actual change in dietary intake or physical activity to reduce the risk of cardiometabolic disorders in adults .
Genetic risk prediction of chronic conditions including obesity , diabetes and CVD currently has limited predictive power but its potential to engage healthy behaviour change has been of immense research interest .
We aim ed to underst and whether the latter is indeed true by conducting a systematic review and meta- analysis investigating whether genetic risk communication affects motivation and actual behaviour change towards preventative lifestyle modification .