On Tuesday 31 May Rachel Kalf from the department of epidemiology at Erasmus University Medical Centre, Rotterdam in The Netherlands presented a paper at the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics in which she argued that home genetic tests are neither acurate nor beneficial to the individual.

Her conclusion is the result of research during which she used simulated genotype data and formulas and risk data provided by two major suppliers of DTC genetic tests, in order to obtain predicted risks for eight common multi-factorial diseases.

Her argument and criticisms are based around the distorted statistical presentation of risk factor and the measuring techniques adopted by the supplier companies in question.

A further and more detailed explanation is available here and the abstract of the paper delivered here.

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(photo: PhotonQ-Bubbles of Micro Diversity by PhOtOnQuAnTiQuE from Flickr)