Department of Oncology and Hemato-Oncology (DIPO), University of Milan, Milan, Italy.
Applied Research Division for Cognitive and Psychological Science, IEO, European Institute of Oncology IRCCS, Milan, Italy.
Mol Genet Genomic Med. 2020 Aug;8(8):e1291. doi: 10.1002/mgg3.1291. Epub 2020 Jun 5.
Over the last decade, genetic testing (GT) had markedly spread in European countries and struggled the debate concerning the psychological effects on the population. The aim of this study was to investigate the individual tendencies of GT consumers in a sample of Italian citizens.
A total of 152 Italian clients from GenomaLab, a private genetic company, were enrolled from February 2016 to September 2018 and completed an ad hoc survey.
Results showed that GT consumers were motivated to preserve their well-being, they felt responsible for their health, they were neither pessimistic nor optimistic toward negative occurrences, and poorly inclined to take high risks in their lives. Participants who had suffered from a disease in the past appear to be less tolerant to the uncertainty for future negative events.
Our results depict Italian GT consumers as health-oriented, focused on prevention, who do not have a pessimistic perception of their condition but do not like to "bet" on their health, and probably their intention (and belief) is to acquire genetic information in order to reduce uncertainty and increase their decision-making "power" related to their health. Taken together, all these results contribute to describe the population of GT users in European countries, to regulate the provision of GT results and to entail the communication of genetic risk information based on a consumers' personal profile.
在过去的十年中，基因检测（GT）在欧洲国家得到了广泛应用，并引发了关于其对人群心理影响的争论。本研究旨在调查意大利公民样本中 GT 消费者的个体倾向。
2016 年 2 月至 2018 年 9 月，我们从一家名为 GenomaLab 的私人基因公司招募了 152 名意大利客户，并完成了一项专门的调查。
结果表明，GT 消费者的动机是为了维护自己的健康，他们对自己的健康负责，对负面事件既不悲观也不乐观，而且在生活中不太倾向于冒险。过去患有疾病的参与者似乎对未来负面事件的不确定性容忍度较低。
我们的研究结果表明，意大利的 GT 消费者注重健康，关注预防，他们对自己的状况没有悲观的看法，但不喜欢“押注”自己的健康，他们的意图（和信念）可能是获取遗传信息，以减少不确定性并增强他们与健康相关的决策“能力”。总之，所有这些结果有助于描述欧洲国家的 GT 用户群体，规范 GT 结果的提供，并根据消费者的个人资料进行遗传风险信息的沟通。
