Soon Canadians will be able to order a kit, provide a sample of spit and ship it off to a California company to get genetic information about themselves. The 23andMe company is going to start selling the genetic testing kits in Canada, promising analysis on over 100 health conditions and ancestry information.
Kits banned in the U.S.
The kits have been banned in the United States. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says the company failed to prove the tests were supported by science, and that inaccurate results could cause customers to get unnecessary or ineffective medical treatment.
The information can range from inherited conditions to how a person might react to certain drugs. But while a person may have a gene for a particular condition, it’s not clear to what extent that predicts that a person will actually develop it.
“For some of these conditions we know that a genetic test is highly predictive,” says Stuart Nicholls, a post-doctoral fellow in medicine at the University of Ottawa. “For some of the other tests we really don’t know… they may not be as predictive and other factors may impact more on your health than your genetics.”
He gives the example of some of the cardiac diseases where weight, diet and lifestyle may have a bigger impact on a person’s risk than their genetics.
There has also been concern about how people may react to results. “Studies that are emerging at the minute suggest that maybe some of the concerns that people have raised about anxiety, misinterpretation of results aren’t quite as strong,” says Nicholls. “But also some of the benefits that are being sold about empowerment, enabling people to make changes to their lifestyle are also being oversold to us to a certain extent.”
Most don’t act on results
Several studies indicate that based on genetic tests results, most people did not modify their diet, their fat intake, or getting screening for disease, says Nicholls. They also indicate that people using the test kits are mostly healthy and curious, and not seeking health information because they are sick.
For the healthy and curious, the tests may be interesting, but for those who tend to be anxious about their health they may not be the best thing, says Nicholls. “What I would say is if people are concerned about their health, then the first port of call should really be going to speak to a health care professional.”
Meanwhile, Canada’s privacy commissioner has raised concerns about the privacy of genetic tests.
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