Attitudes toward genetic testing and personalised nutrition in a representative sample of European consumers

Abstract

Negative consumer opinion poses a potential barrier to the application of nutrigenomic intervention. The present study has aimed to determine attitudes toward genetic testing and personalised nutrition among the European public. An omnibus opinion survey of a representative sample aged 14 -55 þ years (n 5967) took place in France, Italy, Great Britain, Portugal, Poland and Germany during June 2005 as part of the Lipgene project. A majority of respondents (66 %) reported that they would be willing to undergo genetic testing and 27 % to follow a personalised diet. Individuals who indicated a willingness to have a genetic test for the personalising of their diets were more likely to report a history of high blood cholesterol levels, central obesity and/or high levels of stress than those who would have a test only for general interest. Those who indicated that they would not have a genetic test were more likely to be male and less likely to report having central obesity. Individuals with a history of high blood cholesterol were less likely than those who did not to worry if intervention foods contained GM ingredients. Individuals who were aware that they had health problems associated with the metabolic syndrome appeared particularly favourable toward nutrigenomic intervention. These findings are encouraging for the future application of personalised nutrition provided that policies are put in place to address public concern about how genetic information is used and held.

Making personalised nutrition the easy choice: Creating policies to break down the barriers and reap the benefits

“…In other words, personalised nutrition is a product of high perceived value for which a proportion of society is prepared to pay a premium. These findings align with those of previous survey studies of public attitudes toward personalised nutrition (Roosen et al, 2008;Stewart-Knox et al, 2009;Su and Lu, 2012) which have indicated that between one third and a half of Europeans would be keen to take advantage of personalised nutrition.…”

Consumer attitudes toward genetic testing and personalised nutrition in Hungary

“…If the results obtained during the research are compared with the data polled in the six European countries (STEWART-KNOX et al, 2009), then it is obvious that willingness to make a genetic testing is the lowest in Hungary among the tested countries. For example, in Portugal 48.5% of the respondents and in France 44.3% of them would have a genetic test made because they are generally interested.…”

Riboflavin status, MTHFR genotype and blood pressure: current evidence and implications for personalised nutrition

“…In recent years, there is increasing public interest in genetic testing in the health field, in a study investigating attitudes to genetic testing among 2000 individuals, 81 % of respondents believed that knowing their genetic risk could lead to better control of their lives (108) . A number of studies have reported that individuals identified as having a higher disease risk through genetic testing may be more motivated to change dietary habits (109)(110)(111) . Nevertheless a number of concerns towards genetic testing have been reported including cost, privacy, misuse of genetic information and fear that results could influence insurance companies and job opportunities (107,108,110,112) .…”