Might personal genomic information lead people to change their behavior?
If you are not following the recommended health guidelines and practices, such as eating well and exercising, we do not know whether personal genomic information will cause you to change your behavior. Finding out, for instance, that you have a slightly increased or slightly decreased risk of developing disease “x” may or may not cause you to alter your behavior. At the end of the day, you should still follow the recommendations for screening and detection, and these recommendations currently do not make use of genetic risk information. This could change in a few years if we have additional information and interventions that are based on specific genetic profiles. But it’s not the case now. Do you think that talking about these tests may inadvertently draw people to them? People need to be savvy consumers when it comes to their own health and health care. They should take a hard and a skeptical look at these products. I’m all for educating the public and the providers, and doing so can
