Racial minority group interest in direct-to-consumer genetic testing: findings from the PGen study.

J Community Genet
Authors
Abstract

There is little information regarding direct-to-consumer (DTC) personal genetic testing (PGT) in non-White racial minorities. Using a web-based survey, we compared the pretest interests and attitudes toward DTC-PGT of racial minority and White DTC-PGT customers of 23andMe and Pathway Genomics using chi-square tests and multinomial regression. Data were available for 1487 participants (1389 White, 44 Black, and 54 Asian). Survey responses were similar across racial groups, although a greater proportion of Blacks compared to Whites reported being "very interested" in genetic information related to traits (91.9 vs. 70.8%, p = 0.009). A greater proportion of Asians compared to Whites reported that a "very important" consideration for pursuing DTC-PGT was limited information about their family health history (58.0 vs. 37.5%, p = 0.002). While a number of significant differences between groups were observed in unadjusted analyses, they did not remain significant after adjustment. This study provides a preliminary view of the interests for purchasing DTC-PGT among customers with racial minority backgrounds.

Year of Publication
2017
Journal
J Community Genet
Volume
8
Issue
4
Pages
293-301
Date Published
2017 Oct
ISSN
1868-310X
DOI
10.1007/s12687-017-0325-5
PubMed ID
28868574
PubMed Central ID
PMC5614887
Links
Grant list
R01 HG006615 / HG / NHGRI NIH HHS / United States
U19 HD077671 / National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
U01 HG006500 / National Human Genome Research Institute
U19 HD077671 / HD / NICHD NIH HHS / United States
R01 HG005092 / National Human Genome Research Institute
U01 HG006500 / HG / NHGRI NIH HHS / United States
R01 HG005092 / HG / NHGRI NIH HHS / United States