Public Attitude towards Biobanking: An Italian University Survey

Abstract

Biobanks have established a critical role in biomedical research by collecting, preserving, organizing, and disseminating biospecimens and related health data, contributing to precision medicine development. Participation in biobanks is influenced by several factors, such as trust in institutions and scientists, knowledge about biobanking, and the consideration of benefit sharing. Understanding public attitudes, fears, and concerns toward biobanking is fundamental to designing targeted interventions to increase trust towards biobanks. The aim of our study was to investigate the level of knowledge and perception of biobanks in students and personnel of the University of Piemonte Orientale. An online questionnaire was designed and administered via e-mail. A total of 17,758 UPO personnel and students were invited to participate in the survey, and 1521 (9.3%) subjects completed the survey. The results showed that 65.0% of the participants were aware of the term “biobank” and knew what the activity of a biobank was, and 76.3% of subjects were willing to provide biospecimens to a research biobank, whereas 67.3% of the respondents were willing to contribute, in addition to biospecimens, their health and lifestyle data. Concerns were raised about the confidentiality of the information (25.6%) and the commercial use of the samples (25.0%). In conclusion, participants were aware of the role that biobanks play in research and were eager to participate for the sake of furthering scientific research. Still, several concerns need to be addressed regarding the confidentiality of the data along with the commercial use of the samples and associated data.

Do biobanks need pharmacists? Support of pharmacy students to biobanking of human biological material for pharmaceutical research and development

“…Similar results were obtained in the research carried out among future health and care professionals (HCPs) in Saudi Arabia (Merdad et al, 2017) and Egypt (Ziady et al, 2017;Abdelhafiz et al, 2021). Moreover, a high level of acceptance along with a low level of knowledge were found in research among students of non-medical studies in Italy (Aleni et al, 2022) and Jordan (Khatib et al, 2021), where willingness to donate their own specimens to biobanks was considerably higher among students of medical studies than students of non-medical studies. Similar results were found in previous studies regarding Italian university students' awareness on biobanking and DNA profiling.…”

UPO Biobank: The Challenge of Integrating Biobanking into the Academic Environment to Support Translational Research

“…Based on this biobank initiative, disease-specific biobanking studies have already been published ( Table 1 ) [ 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 ], and all the invited patients participating in these studies also adhered to the broader aims of the biobank by providing specific consent.…”

“…A recent survey investigating the level of knowledge and perception of biobanks in UPO students and personnel shows that potential participants were aware of the role that biobanks play in research and were eager to participate for the sake of furthering scientific research. Notably, the study highlights concerns about the confidentiality of the data along with the commercial use of the samples/data [ 39 ], encouraging UPO Biobank to disseminate clearer and detailed information about participant rights protection.…”

Awareness, Attitudes and Willingness to Donate Biological Samples to a Biobank: A Survey of a Representative Sample of Polish Citizens

“…In the second, it was shown that Finnish society, despite its openness to scientific research and strong declarations of willingness to donate their biological material to biobanks, has a lower actual willingness to donate biological material than declared [46]. In Italy, 76.3% of students and personnel of the University of Piemonte Orientale that completed the questionnaire agreed to donate their material for research [47]. In Germany 70.4% of the respondents agreed [36].…”