Table 2. Percent agreement by educational level for selected items.
| Response Options | Educational Level | Statistics | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12–13 years | ≤10 years | ||
| Do you want to know if you inherited the genetic predisposition for cardiovascular disease? | |||
| yes | 76% | 85% | χ2 (2, N = 481) = 19.0, p < .001 |
| no | 23% | 10% | |
| I don’t know | 1% | 5% | |
| Do you want to know if you have inherited the genetic makeup for hereditary cancer? | |||
| yes | 65% | 73% | χ2 (2, N = 484) = 11.8, p < .01 |
| no | 31% | 19% | |
| I don’t know | 4% | 8% | |
| My physician should know all my genetic findings and decide on the basis of his professional knowledge which he tells me about and which he doesn’t tell me about. | |||
| yes | 25% | 46% | χ2 (2, N = 475) = 27.2, p < .001 |
| no | 73% | 50% | |
| I don’t know | 2% | 5% | |
| Which of the following do you think outweighs the other: The physician’s duty of care towards you as a patient or your right to self-determination? | |||
| Duty of care | 16% | 27% | χ2 (2, N = 480) = 10.3, p < .01 |
| Self-determination | 74% | 61% | |
| I don’t know | 10% | 12% | |
| Physician overrides your decision not to know in case of risk information about a non-actionable severe disease. Do you agree? | |||
| Yes, I agree | 30% | 57% | χ2 (2, N = 474) = 48.0, p < .001 |
| No, I do not agree | 61% | 29% | |
| I don’t know | 10% | 14% | |
| Would you want to know already before the birth whether your child has a genetic risk for a genetic disorder? | |||
| yes | 34% | 45% | χ2 (2, N = 479) = 9.7, p < .01 |
| no | 60% | 46% | |
| I don’t know | 6% | 9% | |
| Should people who have jobs with special responsibility (e.g. pilots) be tested for certain genetic risks? | |||
| yes | 25% | 41% | χ2 (2, N = 483) = 31.7, p < .001 |
| no | 67% | 42% | |
| I don’t know | 8% | 17% | |
| I want to know about any risk I have for a genetic disorder that is found incidentally. | |||
| yes | 57% | 77% | χ2 (3, N = 482) = 20.6, p < .001 |
| no | 19% | 11% | |
| Only, if prevention possibilities are available | 17% | 9% | |
| I don’t know | 7% | 3% | |
| Depending on the following age of onset of the illness, would you want to know if you have the genetic defect? 20 Years | |||
| yes | 77% | 72% | χ2 (2, N = 443) = 5.3, p = .071 |
| no | 19% | 18% | |
| I don’t know | 5% | 10% | |
| Depending on the following age of onset of the illness, would you want to know if you have the genetic defect? 40 Years | |||
| yes | 78% | 82% | χ2 (2, N = 458) = 8.0, p < .01 |
| no | 18% | 10% | |
| I don’t know | 4% | 8% | |
| Depending on the following age of onset of the illness, would you want to know if you have the genetic defect? 60 Years. | |||
| yes | 63% | 71% | χ2 (2, N = 465) = 21.0, p < .001 |
| no | 33% | 17% | |
| I don’t know | 4% | 12% | |
Note. For reasons of space, the wording of the questions displayed in this table is abbreviated. Please see S1 File for the exact question wording in the original questionnaire. Percentages might not add up to 100% due to rounding errors. All reported p-values are Bonferroni corrected.