If you could read the map of your genome, would you change course?

Scripps Translational Science Institute, Navigenics, Affymetrix and Microsoft will team up to determine how personal genomics information influences health decisions.  

The 10,000-participant study will examine individuals’ long-term psychological reactions and behavior change — or its absence — resulting from receiving individualized risk information. Participants will complete a questionnaire about a wide range of health behaviors at the start of the study before they receive their genetic disease risk results.  They will report their psychological and physical response to this information after three months and at the end of the first year, then annually or once every two years for the next 19 years. Individuals’ data will be available on Microsoft’s Health Vault, a Web-based electronic medical-record system launched last year.

It’s intended to be the foundational study of preventative genomic medicine  – Vance Vanier, chief medical officer of Navigenics.

A minor but important note is that the individuals will be recruited through the Scripps Health System, who could be more health conscious and better educated than the general public.  It is not clear how representative these results will be to the general population, particularly those who would need more information about interpretation of the genomic data, their risk and genetics in general.