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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Genet.
Sec. ELSI in Science and Genetics
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fgene.2024.1496900

Workplace genomic testing: Which employees are likely to participate, what are their concerns with employer sponsorship, and which design features could reduce barriers and increase participation?

Provisionally accepted
Forrest Briscoe Forrest Briscoe 1*James H. Maxwell James H. Maxwell 2Angel Bourgoin Angel Bourgoin 3
  • 1 Cornell University, Ithaca, United States
  • 2 Environment and Health Group (United States), Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
  • 3 JSI Research & Training Institute (United States), Atlanta, Georgia, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Voluntary genomic testing (GT) leverages low-cost DNA sequencing to provide genetic risk screening for healthy individuals. Given the potential to prevent disease and promote health, some employers now offer GT as an employee benefit (workplace GT, or wGT), but participation remains low. To investigate facilitators and barriers to wGT participation, we conducted one of the first representative surveys of working U.S. adults on this topic (n=958). We assessed factors that could influence participation, including: sponsoring entity (health provider or employer), program design, and individual demographics. Two-thirds (68%) of respondents indicated willingness to participate in some type of GT, but only half (49%) expressed willingness to participate through their employer. Women were 60% more willing to participate than men, and individuals with previous genetic testing experience were 143% more willing to participate than those without such experience. Across all demographic groups, certain GT program design features tended to increase or decrease willingness to participate. The ability to have one’s data deleted from the GT database increased willingness most often (true for 67% of respondents), while selling data to pharmaceutical companies decreased willingness most often (true for 63% of respondents).

    Keywords: ELSI, Workplace, Wellness, Employee benefit, Genetic testing (GT), population screening, workplace wellness program, genomic testing

    Received: 15 Sep 2024; Accepted: 18 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Briscoe, Maxwell and Bourgoin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Forrest Briscoe, Cornell University, Ithaca, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.