Study of the Russian student’s attitude to genetic testing and pharmacogenetic analysis

Ya.V. Kirichuk¹, S.S. Tsarkov², A.S. Orlova¹, E.V. Silina¹, K.S. Kerimova³, V.A. Dadaeva⁴, E.S. Akarachkova<sup>5

1</sup>Sechenov University, Moscow
²Privolzhsky Research Medical University, Nizhny Novgorod
³MediSPA LLC, Moscow
⁴National Medical Research Center for Preventive Medicine, Moscow
⁵International Association for the Study and Effective Control of the Stress and Related Disorders, Moscow

Genetic testing is one of the main studies of personalized medicine with a considerable impact on diagnosis of genetic and multifactorial diseases. The results of pharmacogenetic analysis give an opportunity for the precise selection of drugs with optimal dosing range and time of administration. Nevertheless, people are not aware of the real-life implications of such studies.
Aim: to evaluate the awareness and attitude about genetic testing and its implementation of students of various (medical and non-medical students) educational institutions.
Patients and Methods: a total of 982 respondents — 539 and 443 medical and non-medical students, respectively, participated in a survey. The survey was performed in different regions of the Russian Federation and was anonymous. The questionnaire was available on the Internet on the basis of the Google Forms service and contained 14 questions concerning different aspects of genetic testing. All basic concepts were explained to the participants during the survey.
Results: it was revealed that medical students are more likely to be aware of personalized medicine (75.6%, against 49% of non-medical students, p=0.0002). A substantial part (81.2%) among all participants reacted positively to undergo genetic testing; 84.6% expressed a desire to undergo pharmacogenetic analysis; 84.1% were ready for lifestyle changes in case of a high risk of disease development. 73.1% of the respondents were in favor of universal genetic testing. Furthermore, the majority of respondents stated that genetic testing in pregnancy planning (58.9%) and genetic testing of children (70.9%) are reasonable to conduct. Only 42.9% of respondents were ready to participate in a clinical trial of an unregistered drug in case of a relevant disease. There were no significant differences in the responses between medical and non-medical students.
Conclusion: obtained results showed that it is essential to continue the genetic testing development, to study bioethical aspects and to inform the population on its benefits.

Keywords: personalized medicine, genetic testing, genetic disease, multifactorial disease, survey, students, pregnancy planning, pharmacogenetic analysis, bioethics.
For citation: Kirichuk Ya.V., Tsarkov S.S., Orlova A.S. et al. Study of the Russian student’s attitude to genetic testing and pharmacogenetic analysis. RMJ. 2019;1(I):37–40.