Das Vertrauen der deutschen Bevlkerung in die Durchfhrung und Ergebnisverwendung genetischer Untersuchungen

Abstract Genetic susceptibility testing for hereditarydiseases is developing rapidly. In this study, we investi-gated the level of confidence people have concerningtheir autonomy in decisions about undergoing genetictesting and their faith in confidential use of test results. Inthe year 2001, we conducted a survey in a samplerepresentative of the German population (n=2076) andasked individuals to indicate their attitudes towardsgenetic testing. Subjects were administered a self-reportquestionnaire which comprised 13 items. The dependentvariable is a single-item measure which pertains to faithin autonomous decision-making concerning genetic test-ing and confidential use of the test results. The resultsreveal that the majority of the German population ex-presses confidence in autonomous decision-making andconfidentiality. Differences in the level of confidenceemerged for subgroups differing in sociodemographiccharacteristics. Those who are older, have a higher formaleducation, show no religious affiliation and live in theEastern part of Germany express more confidence.Furthermore, faith surrounding genetic testing is signif-icantly associated with attitudes towards gene tests (ap-proval, disapproval, and concern for genetic testing).However, the low correlations indicate that even agenerally positive attitude towards gene tests has littleimpact on the faith surrounding genetic testing when thepersonal relevance of the gene test is stressed.Keywords Genetic testing · Attitudes · Generalpopulation · Representative survey