Survey of Attitudes of Japanese Women Toward Genetic/Genomic Research

Previous surveys have suggested that elderly Japanese women have the lowest scientific interest and literacy within the Japanese population and among populations across Western countries. Because recent tremendous advances in genome analysis are likely to be incorporated into standard biomedical assessments throughout the world, we conducted surveys to investigate the attitudes toward genetic/genomic research of Japanese women aged between 55 and 65 years. Current surveys indicate that obtaining adequate informed consent from elderly Japanese women is complicated. The limitation is especially relevant to participants’ literacy in genetics and genomic studies. Results of the surveys also indicate that even after the informed consent is obtained, researchers must continue to supply updated study information to the study subjects, which enables them to obtain additional information on the use of their samples and genetic/genomic information. Failure to consider these obligations may lead to a loss of the public’s trust and thus affect research progress on medical genomics.