Have you ever heard of direct-to-consumer, or DTC, genetic tests? These tests can be bought and carried out at home, just by spitting in a tube. DTC genetic tests often promise to reveal things about our health, heritage, and unique traits that are hidden in our DNA. In this video, we ask: what can these tests really tell us?
DTC ancestry tests can give people information about their ethnic background and family history by comparing their DNA to others from around the world. This information isn’t always accurate, and the tests can struggle to give precise details about exactly where someone’s ancestors came from. Ancestry tests may also reveal family secrets that are upsetting to the person taking the test and their family, like a child finding out their father isn’t biologically related to them.
Many DTC tests say they can predict someone’s traits just by looking at their DNA. This works well for simple traits which have a strong genetic basis, like eye colour. But other traits, like preferring chocolate over vanilla ice cream, depend on lots of genetic changes and environmental factors that the tests miss out, and so the results are likely to be inaccurate.
DTC tests can also tell us things about our health by checking our DNA for changes which increase our risk of certain diseases, like Alzheimer’s disease. Again, these health predictions don’t often give us the full picture, as they only check for a few DNA changes affecting health while missing out many others, and they ignore important lifestyle and environmental factors.
We also look at various limitations and caveats, such as how DTC genetic testing compares to genetic testing ordered by your doctor, why DTC genetic tests may be less accurate for people of non-European ancestry, and what you should know about data privacy.
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My problem though, is the background music which for me is as an autistic is not background but intrusive and frankly annoying. This applies to all the videos I've watched and I wonder why, in an effort for inclusivity the music cannot be muted, leaving just the verbal content. Yes, I know I can download the transcript but would prefer not to, and enjoy the efforts of the tutors.