EDUCATION

Genetic screening and occupational and environmental exposures

P Vineis¹, H Ahsan², M Parker³

¹ Imperial College London, UK, and University of Torino, Italy
² Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
³ The Ethox Centre, Oxford University, UK

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Prof. P Vineis
Dept of Epidemiology and Public Health, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, Norfolk Place, London W2 1PG, UK; p.vineis@imperial.ac.uk

Keywords: environment; genetic screening; high risk groups; occupation

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

A theoretical and practical discussion took place some years ago about the selection of high risk groups for the implementation of preventive activities. Particularly important in this discussion was Geoffrey Rose’s seminal work.¹ In this work, Rose set out the main advantages and disadvantages of such a "high risk group" preventive strategy. In Rose’s words, it is a strategy with some clear and important advantages:

• The "high risk" strategy produces interventions that are appropriate to the particular individuals identified and consequently has the advantage of enhanced subject motivation.
  
• The "high risk" approach also offers a more cost effective use of limited resources and a more favourable ratio of benefits to risks.
  

Despite these advantages, the "high risk" strategy of prevention has some serious disadvantages and limitations. Firstly, as in all screening one is likely to meet problems with compliance, and the tendency is for the response to be greatest among . . . [Full text of this article]

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