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Willingness to donate genomic and other medical data : results from Germany

Voigt, Torsten H ; Holtz, Verena ; Niemiec, Emilia LU orcid ; Howard, Heidi C LU ; Middleton, Anna and Prainsack, Barbara (2020) In European Journal of Human Genetics 28(8). p.1000-1009
Abstract

This paper reports findings from Germany-based participants in the "Your DNA, Your Say" study, a collaborative effort among researchers in more than 20 countries across the world to explore public attitudes, values and opinions towards willingness to donate genomic and other personal data for use by others. Based on a representative sample of German residents (n = 1506) who completed the German-language version of the survey, we found that views of genetic exceptionalism were less prevalent in the German-language arm of the study than in the English-language arm (43% versus 52%). Also, people's willingness to make their data available for research was lower in the German than in the English-language samples of the study (56% versus... (More)

This paper reports findings from Germany-based participants in the "Your DNA, Your Say" study, a collaborative effort among researchers in more than 20 countries across the world to explore public attitudes, values and opinions towards willingness to donate genomic and other personal data for use by others. Based on a representative sample of German residents (n = 1506) who completed the German-language version of the survey, we found that views of genetic exceptionalism were less prevalent in the German-language arm of the study than in the English-language arm (43% versus 52%). Also, people's willingness to make their data available for research was lower in the German than in the English-language samples of the study (56% versus 67%). In the German sample, those who were more familiar with genetics, and those holding views of genetic exceptionalism were more likely to be willing to donate data than others. We explain these findings with reference to the important role that the "right of informational self-determination" plays in German public discourse. Rather than being a particularly strict interpretation of privacy in the sense of a right to be left alone, the German understanding of informational self-determination bestows on each citizen the responsibility to carefully consider how their personal data should be used to protect important rights and to serve the public good.

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author
; ; ; ; and
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
European Journal of Human Genetics
volume
28
issue
8
pages
10 pages
publisher
Nature Publishing Group
external identifiers
  • pmid:32238912
  • scopus:85083282296
ISSN
1476-5438
DOI
10.1038/s41431-020-0611-2
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
5d0521f0-b223-48a8-9414-de43359451f8
date added to LUP
2020-11-17 17:31:06
date last changed
2024-04-03 16:48:03
@article{5d0521f0-b223-48a8-9414-de43359451f8,
  abstract     = {{<p>This paper reports findings from Germany-based participants in the "Your DNA, Your Say" study, a collaborative effort among researchers in more than 20 countries across the world to explore public attitudes, values and opinions towards willingness to donate genomic and other personal data for use by others. Based on a representative sample of German residents (n = 1506) who completed the German-language version of the survey, we found that views of genetic exceptionalism were less prevalent in the German-language arm of the study than in the English-language arm (43% versus 52%). Also, people's willingness to make their data available for research was lower in the German than in the English-language samples of the study (56% versus 67%). In the German sample, those who were more familiar with genetics, and those holding views of genetic exceptionalism were more likely to be willing to donate data than others. We explain these findings with reference to the important role that the "right of informational self-determination" plays in German public discourse. Rather than being a particularly strict interpretation of privacy in the sense of a right to be left alone, the German understanding of informational self-determination bestows on each citizen the responsibility to carefully consider how their personal data should be used to protect important rights and to serve the public good.</p>}},
  author       = {{Voigt, Torsten H and Holtz, Verena and Niemiec, Emilia and Howard, Heidi C and Middleton, Anna and Prainsack, Barbara}},
  issn         = {{1476-5438}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{8}},
  pages        = {{1000--1009}},
  publisher    = {{Nature Publishing Group}},
  series       = {{European Journal of Human Genetics}},
  title        = {{Willingness to donate genomic and other medical data : results from Germany}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41431-020-0611-2}},
  doi          = {{10.1038/s41431-020-0611-2}},
  volume       = {{28}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}