Genetic Literacy And Attitudes Survey (Iglas): International Population-Wide Assessment Instrument

Abstract

Genetics represents the fastest developing discipline in the history of scientific enquiry. Genetic advances have implications for individuals and society, including matters related to law, ethics, education, medicine and philosophy. As such, it will be important for all people to be able to engage with genetic research, not just at the point that it becomes personally applicable, such as in medical treatment, but also more generally across many social domains. Given the ever-increasing impact of genetics on daily life, it is important to have a tool to evaluate what people know, think and feel about genetics and for this tool to be applicable across society. Previous studies have mainly focused on genetic literacy in medical domains with less attention paid to other applications. They have also largely focused on well-defined populations, such as undergraduate students and young adults. To overcome these limitations of previous research in this area, a consortium of psychologists, geneticists, lawyers, educationalists and ethicists have developed the International Genetic Literacy and Attitudes Survey (iGLAS). This paper presents the development, piloting and validation of this instrument. The resulting iGLAS provides a flexible, informative and quick tool for evaluating public knowledge and perceptions of genetics. In particular, it provides a tool that can be used across all demographics, allowing for tailored research with specific groups of interest.

Genetic feedback for psychiatric conditions: Where are we now and where are we going

“…The average genetic literary scores of this set of studies which use assessments adapted from the brief questionnaire range from 64.6 to 83.6% (Dar-Nimrod et al, 2019;Haga et al, 2013;Jallinoja & Aro, 1999;Molster et al, 2008;Schmidlen et al, 2016) with multiple assessment items having a correct response rate of 95% or higher (Dar-Nimrod et al, 2019;Haga et al, 2013;Schmidlen et al, 2016). Recently, the International Genetic Literacy and Attitudes Survey was developed to overcome some of the limitations of previous questionnaires including only true/false items and ceiling effects (Chapman et al, 2017). The measure includes items with high item discrimination in order to better differentiate individuals with respect to their genetic knowledge.…”

“…and "How many copies of each gene do we have in each cell?" (Chapman et al, 2017). The study that utilized this measure found that the average genetic literacy in a large sample of individuals with secondary education was 65.5% (Chapman et al, 2019).…”

To Use or Not to Use: No Consensus on Whether and How to Apply Genetic Information in the Justice System

“…The study was approved by the Goldsmiths Department of Psychology Ethics Committee, UK; and the Ethics Committee for Interdisciplinary Research of Tomsk State University, Russia. The online International Genetic Literacy and Attitudes Survey (iGLAS) was used to collect data (see [17,18]). iGLAS is a dynamic instrument, currently in its 10 th version, which consists of five parts: genetic knowledge, attitudes and opinions about genetics, demographic information, vignettes and neuromyths.…”

Factor and Rasch Analysis on COVID-19 Genetics Literacy Assessment Instrument

“…Several other researchers emphasize the importance of genetics education in nursing education (Camak, 2016;Daack-Hirsch et al, 2013;Giarelli & Reiff, 2012). In line with these studies, other researchers have also developed various genetics literacy assessment instruments, such as the genetics literacy assessment instrument for undergraduates (Bowling et al, 2008), Genetic Literacy and Attitudes Survey (Chapman, 2017), and Public Understanding and Attitudes towards Genetics and Genomics (Condit, 2010). Interestingly, in accordance with researches reviewing and raising the urgency of genetics education, these literacy instruments focus more on measuring respondents' literacy and understanding of the basic concepts of genetics, even though some of them are related to diseases and genetic testing.…”