Knowledge, opinions and expectations of adults concerning personalised genotype-based dietary recommendations: a...

To assess the knowledge, opinions and expectations of persons with and without obesity concerning personalised genotype-based nutrition.

Questions about nutrition, weight management and personalised genotype-based dietary recommendations were asked via standardised telephone-based interviews. Sociodemographic and anthropometric data were collected. The data were statistically weighted by age, gender, education, domicile and BMI.

Germany.

Representative sample of the German population (n 1003) randomly sampled via a scientific Random Digit dial method plus 354 adults with a BMI ≥ 30·0 kg/m2 to enlarge the sample.

Data of 1357 participants were analysed (51·1 % female, age: 50·5 ± 18·5 years, 15·9 % adults with a BMI ≥ 30·0 kg/m2). About 42 % or 19 % of the survey participants stated to know the terms personalised dietary recommendation or genotype-based dietary recommendation, respectively. Of those, 15·8 % indicated to have an experience with a personalised or genotype-based dietary recommendation. Almost 70 % of the survey participants believed that a genotype-based dietary recommendation is a reasonable measure for weight management. About 55 % of the survey participants pointed out that a genotype-based dietary recommendation is an effective concept in general. One-third of the survey participants (34·6 %) indicated to conceive the usage of a genotype-based dietary recommendation.

Most of the survey participants did not know the term personalised or genotype-based dietary recommendation. One-third of the study participants are interested to use a genotype-based dietary recommendation. Therefore, more education of the public is necessary to properly help people making informed and serious decisions and assessing commercially available direct-to-consumer genetic tests.