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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Denis Campbell and Nonyelum Anigbo

Over the counter genetic tests in UK ‘fail to identify 89%’ of those at serious risk

Digital illustration of a human DNA strand.
Digital illustration of a human DNA strand. Photograph: Vitaliy Smolygin/Alamy

Over the counter genetic tests in the UK that assess the risk of cancer or heart problems fail to identify 89% of those in danger of getting killer diseases, a new study has found.

Polygenic risk scores are so unreliable that they also wrongly tell one in 20 people who receive them they will develop a major illness, even though they do not go on to do so.

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