9 research outputs found
Medical data donation, consent and the public interest after death:A gateway to posthumous data use
Understanding the Public's Reservations about Broad Consent and Study-By-Study Consent for Donations to a Biobank: Results of a National Survey.
Researchers and policymakers do not agree about the most appropriate way to get consent for the use of donations to a biobank. The most commonly used method is blanket-or broad-consent where donors allow their donation to be used for any future research approved by the biobank. This approach does not account for the fact that some donors may have moral concerns about the uses of their biospecimens. This problem can be avoided using "real-time"-or study-by-study-consent, but this policy places a significant burden on biobanks. In order to better understand the public's preferences regarding biobank consent policy, we surveyed a sample that was representative of the population of the United States. Respondents were presented with 5 biobank consent policies and were asked to indicate which policies were acceptable/unacceptable and to identify the best/worst policies. They were also given 7 research scenarios that could create moral concern (e.g. research intending to make abortions safer and more effective) and asked how likely they would be to provide broad consent knowing that their donation might be used in that research. Substantial minorities found both broad and study-by-study consent to be unacceptable and identified those two options as the worst policies. Furthermore, while the type of moral concern (e.g., regarding abortion, the commercial use of donations, or stem cell research) had no effect on policy preferences, an increase in the number of research scenarios generating moral concerns was related to an increased likelihood of finding broad consent to be the worst policy. The rejection of these ethically problematic and costly extremes is good news for biobanks. The challenge now is to design a policy that combines consent with access to information in a way that assures potential donors that their interests and moral concerns are being respected
Consent policy preferences by willingness to donate using blanket consent in different types of NWI scenarios and in baseline blanket consent.
<p>Consent policy preferences by willingness to donate using blanket consent in different types of NWI scenarios and in baseline blanket consent.</p
Percent finding societal consent policy “unacceptable” or “worst”.
<p>Percent finding societal consent policy “unacceptable” or “worst”.</p
Research scenarios that may provoke non-welfare interest (NWI) concerns.
<p>Research scenarios that may provoke non-welfare interest (NWI) concerns.</p
Societal policy options for biobank consent.
<p>Societal policy options for biobank consent.</p
Logistic regression predicting preferences for blanket or real-time specific consent policies.
<p>Logistic regression predicting preferences for blanket or real-time specific consent policies.</p
Understanding the Public’s Reservations about Broad Consent and Study-By-Study Consent for Donations to a Biobank: Results of a National Survey
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Role of Rare and Low-Frequency Variants in Gene-Alcohol Interactions on Plasma Lipid Levels
BackgroundAlcohol intake influences plasma lipid levels, and such effects may be moderated by genetic variants. We aimed to characterize the role of aggregated rare and low-frequency protein-coding variants in gene by alcohol consumption interactions associated with fasting plasma lipid levels.MethodsIn the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology consortium, fasting plasma triglycerides and high- and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol were measured in 34 153 individuals with European ancestry from 5 discovery studies and 32 277 individuals from 6 replication studies. Rare and low-frequency functional protein-coding variants (minor allele frequency, ≤5%) measured by an exome array were aggregated by genes and evaluated by a gene-environment interaction test and a joint test of genetic main and gene-environment interaction effects. Two dichotomous self-reported alcohol consumption variables, current drinker, defined as any recurrent drinking behavior, and regular drinker, defined as the subset of current drinkers who consume at least 2 drinks per week, were considered.ResultsWe discovered and replicated 21 gene-lipid associations at 13 known lipid loci through the joint test. Eight loci (PCSK9, LPA, LPL, LIPG, ANGPTL4, APOB, APOC3, and CD300LG) remained significant after conditioning on the common index single-nucleotide polymorphism identified by previous genome-wide association studies, suggesting an independent role for rare and low-frequency variants at these loci. One significant gene-alcohol interaction on triglycerides in a novel locus was significantly discovered (P=6.65×10-6 for the interaction test) and replicated at nominal significance level (P=0.013) in SMC5.ConclusionsIn conclusion, this study applied new gene-based statistical approaches and suggested that rare and low-frequency genetic variants interacted with alcohol consumption on lipid levels