Table II.

Items of the modified genetic knowledge measure listed by percentage of participants correctly answering each item.

	% Correct
Some diseases are caused by genes, environment, and lifestyle. (true)	97.2
Genes determine traits such as height, eye color, and facial appearance. (true)	96.8
Healthy parents can have a child with an inherited disease. (true)	95.7
A gene is a disease. (false)	91.6
You can see a gene with the naked eye. (false)	90.8
All serious diseases are inherited. (false)	89.4
A genetic test can tell you if you have a higher chance to develop a specific disease. (true)	84.9
The child of a person with an inherited disease will always have the same disease. (false)	84.2
A gene is a piece of DNA. (true)	81.1
Altered (mutated) genes can cause disease. (true)	79.3
A person with an altered (mutated) gene may be completely healthy. (true)	77.2
A person has thousands of genes. (true)	68.8
A chromosome contains many genes. (true)	64.4
Genes are inside of cells. (true)	63.7
Genes are instructions for making proteins, which help the body grow and work properly. (true)	49.3
Identical twins have different sets of genes. (false)	48.1
Parents pass both copies of each chromosome to their child. (false)	36.5
Humans have 20 pairs of chromosomes. (false)	28.4