Cost and benefit of the genetic diagnosis for diabetes mellitus as a screening test.

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Several diabetes susceptibility genes have been identified recently and expected to be used as screening tests for diabetes and/or diabetic complications.1.A Markov decision analytic model (computerized simulation model) of diabetes mellitus was constructed to evaluate the health implications of examining gene profiles as one of the screening tests for diabetes. The model incorporated the likelihood of developing diabetes and/or diabetic complications, costs, survival year and quality of life. Because of scarce published literature about the health benefits of genetic diagnosis and the weakness of the model structure itself, the simulation process needs further amelioration to accomplish the purpose.2.Through MEDLINE and Japna Centra Revuo Medicina (Ichushi) searches, we retrieved and reviewed English-language and Japanese-language articles about the genetic predisposition to diabetes mellitus, the effectiveness of gene profile examination on health benefits, and the decision and economical analyses of the genetic diagnosis. A lot of articles have dealt with the genetic problems through biological and molecular techniques. But scarce evidence has been reported about the health benefits of the genetic tests for lifestyle related disease such as diabetes mellitus. Some kinds of genetic profile examinations have already been innovated in diabetes fields. Health benefits of genetic diagnosis of diabetes remains to be investigated from several viewpoints such as quality of life, bioethics, and health economics.