Does Direct-to-Consumer Personal Genetic Testing Improve Gynecological Cancer Screening Uptake among Never-Screened Attendees? A Randomized Controlled Study

Miki Watanabe, Satoyo Hosono, Hiroko Nakagawa-Senda, Sachiyo Yamamoto, Masami Aoyama, Satoru Hattori, Tamaki Yamada and Sadao Suzuki
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Miki Watanabe: Department of Public Health, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Nagoya 467-8601, Japan
Satoyo Hosono: Department of Public Health, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Nagoya 467-8601, Japan
Hiroko Nakagawa-Senda: Department of Public Health, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Nagoya 467-8601, Japan
Sachiyo Yamamoto: Health Promotion Division, Okazaki City Public Health Center, Okazaki 444-8545, Japan
Masami Aoyama: Health Promotion Division, Okazaki City Public Health Center, Okazaki 444-8545, Japan
Satoru Hattori: Okazaki City Public Health Center, Okazaki 444-8545, Japan
Tamaki Yamada: Okazaki City Medical Association, Public Health Center, Okazaki 444-0875, Japan
Sadao Suzuki: Department of Public Health, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Nagoya 467-8601, Japan

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 23, 1-10

Abstract: The clinical impact of direct-to-consumer genetic testing (DTC-GT) on health behavior change has remained controversial. The aim of this study is to clarify the short-term effects of DTC-GT on gynecological cancer screening uptake among middle-aged never-screened Japanese women in a randomized controlled trial (RCT). A total of 144 women aged 45–50 who had never undergone gynecological cancer screening were randomly selected to receive health education (control group), or health education and DTC-GT (intervention group), at a 1:1 ratio. We compared the gynecological screening uptake during the follow-up period. Furthermore, to estimate the impact of learning of an elevated genetic cancer risk in the intervention group, we conducted an analysis dichotomized by genetic risk category. A total of 139 women completed the one-year follow-up survey (69 in the control group and 70 in the intervention group). The follow-up period did not differ between control and intervention groups (the median follow-up period was 276 days and 279 days, respectively, p = 0.746). There were 7 (9.7%) women in the control group and 10 (13.9%) in the intervention group who attended breast cancer screening ( p = 0.606), and 9 (12.5%) women from both groups attended cervical cancer screening ( p = 1.000). Likewise, there were no significant differences in cancer screening uptake in the analysis stratified by risk category within the intervention group. In conclusion, there was no significant effect of DTC-GT on gynecological cancer screening uptake in this RCT setting. Increasing cancer screening attendance may require a combination of well-established intervention strategies and DTC-GT. Clinical Trial Registration: UMIN-CTR Identifier, UMIN000031709.

Keywords: cancer screening; breast cancer; cervical cancer; screening uptake; genetic testing; randomized controlled trial (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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