Returning Individual Genetic Results to Participants in Cohort Studies

Project Launched: September 2009
Hastings Investigators: Sarah McGraw and Debbie Sellers

Subcontract to Dana Farber Cancer Institute

The goals of the project are to evaluate whether the characteristics of genetic tests that have been identified as important by expert panels (for example, in terms of risk from particular genetic mutations, severity of that risk, ability to intervene, and reproductive implications) influence the desire of research participants to receive results of genetic tests, as well as to explore which research participant characteristics are associated with the desire to receive results of genetic tests. The study will involve surveys of the Jackson and Framingham Heart Study cohorts, which are culturally, geographically, and socio-economically diverse populations.