How genetic screening results may impact individual health-care decisions — in the short run and over a lifetime — remains unclear, despite the tests’ increasing availability and access.
However, a new study led by researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and published in the American Journal of Human Genetics reports that fewer than half of tested adults followed up on their results by accessing health care services, even when those findings were actionable.
“Approximately half of participants receiving pathogenic or likely pathogenic results did not receive a qualifying health-care service related to the monogenic risk,” said Josh Peterson, M.D., M.P.H., a professor of biomedical informatics and medicine at Vanderbilt.
“To improve outcomes after receiving genetic screening results, patients at increased risk should receive follow-up health services.”
Read more in Discoveries in Medicine here.