Background: With interest in personalised health care growing, so is interest in personal genetic testing. This is now offered direct-to-consumer, thereby referred to as direct-to-consumer genetic testing (DTC-GT). Criticisms have been expressed on whether a truly informed decision to undergo testing is made with regard to these services. In order to provide relevant information to achieve this, knowing the characteristics of the expected user population is helpful. Therefore, the aim of this study is to identify characteristics of individuals who (1) find the concept of DTC-GT acceptable and (2) consider undergoing DTC-GT in the distant or near future. Methods: This cross-sectional study investigated factors associated with acceptability, consideration and intention in the Dutch general population. Studied variables included awareness, principles and how-to knowledge, attitude, innovativeness, and multiple demographic characteristics. Generalised linear models were applied to identify associated variables. Results: Full data was obtained for 836 respondents. Of those, 18.3% found DTC-GT somewhat or totally acceptable, whereas 12.6% considered and 5.5% intended to undergo DTC-GT in the distant or near future. Acceptability was greater with lower principles knowledge, and consideration and intention with lower how-to knowledge. A more positive attitude and greater innovativeness were associated with an increase in all 3 outcomes. Conclusion: Informed decision making may be hampered as individuals with lower how-to knowledge were found to be more interested in pursuing testing. The identified characteristics can be used in development and distribution of public and personalized information, in order to help consumers make a truly informed decision.

中文翻译：

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与接受直接面向消费者的基因检测的可接受性、考虑和意图相关的因素：一项调查研究

背景：随着对个性化医疗保健的兴趣不断增长，对个人基因检测的兴趣也在增加。这现在直接面向消费者提供，因此被称为直接面向消费者的基因检测 (DTC-GT)。有人批评是否就这些服务做出了真正知情的测试决定。为了提供相关信息来实现这一点，了解预期用户群的特征是有帮助的。因此，本研究的目的是确定以下个体的特征：(1) 认为 DTC-GT 的概念是可接受的，(2) 考虑在遥远或不久的将来接受 DTC-GT。方法：这项横断面研究调查了与荷兰一般人群的可接受性、考虑和意图相关的因素。研究的变量包括意识、原则和操作方法 知识、态度、创新性和多种人口学特征。应用广义线性模型来识别相关变量。结果：获得了 836 名受访者的完整数据。其中，18.3% 的人认为 DTC-GT 在某种程度上或完全可以接受，而 12.6% 的人认为和 5.5% 的人打算在不久的将来接受 DTC-GT。较低的原则知识和较低的操作知识的考虑和意图的可接受性更高。更积极的态度和更大的创新与所有 3 个结果的增加有关。结论：知情决策可能会受到阻碍，因为发现操作知识较低的个人对进行测试更感兴趣。