In October last year, I joined several of my colleagues at the
Sanger Institute to order a bunch of direct-to-consumer genetic testing kits from
23andMe. The reason for the batch order was the associated discount. The total cost per person turned out to be around $130, of which $80 were for the kit and $50 for shipping from California to England.
Most of us received our data earlier this month, and I thought that it could be interesting to learn what my colleagues, all of whom probably know more about genetics than the average person, thought of their experience. This is why I asked them to fill in a small survey. Here are the results.
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Results of a survey of 16 23andMe users at the the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. Click on the figure to enlarge it. |
The results are largely self-explanatory. In the following, I am elaborating on a few points that may not be obvious.
Everyone thought that the test was worth what they had paid for it, and 7 out of 16 changed their diet, exercise or lifestyle habits as a result. Respondents generally thought that 23andMe did a good job in presenting the data.
We ordered in October 2013, before
the FDA told 23andMe to stop providing health-related results, which meant that we were able to get ours. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of diseases the test returned information on. For the most severe ones, such as
Alzheimer's, users had to click through a series of questions affirming that they really want to see their results. This is due to the potentially severe impact of these variants. For example, those who have two copies of a specific
APOE gene variant are around ten times more likely develop Alzheimer's. 13 out of 16 respondents chose to see their data on these potentially high-impact variants.
Generally, people thought the health section of their test was interesting. The same cannot be said about the ancestry section, which provides information about genetic origins of the user's family. This result is likely to cause concern for 23andMe, as they have been asked by the FDA to stop providing health information and as a result are now concentrating on ancestry information. A majority (11 out of 16) users thought that 23andMe should not be regulated by regulatory authorities like the FDA.
Do you have any thoughts on the survey or on 23andMe? Please feel free to share them below.