Effect of genomics-related literacy on non-communicable diseases

Recent progress in genomic research has raised expectations for the development of personalized preventive medicine, although genomics-related literacy of patients will be essential. thus, enhancing genomics-related literacy is crucial, particularly for individuals with low genomics-related literacy because they might otherwise miss the opportunity to receive personalized preventive care. this should be especially emphasized when a lack of genomics-related literacy is associated with elevated disease risk, because patients could therefore be deprived of the added benefits of preventive interventions; however, whether such an association exists is unclear. association between genomics-related literacy, calculated as the genomics literacy score (gls), and the prevalence of non-communicable diseases was assessed using propensity score matching on 4646 participants (males: 1891; 40.7%). notably, the low-gls group (score below median) presented a higher risk of hypertension (relative risk (rr) 1.09, 95% confidence interval (ci) 1.03–1.16) and obesity (rr 1.11, 95% ci 1.01–1.22) than the high-gls group. our results suggest that a low level of genomics-related literacy could represent a risk factor for hypertension and obesity. evaluating genomics-related literacy could be used to identify a more appropriate population for health and educational interventions.