Warnings over DIY health tests

Mar 12 2008

Leading health experts in Britain have expressed their concern about the boom in tests and scans for the "worried well".

A report by the 'Sense About Science' charity which involves a group of doctors, have condemned DIY testing targeted at the general public.

Sense About Science says the industry is now worth an estimated £99m a year, but some of the tests may be inaccurate and even harmful.

The group have called on the government to improve regulation of the new techniques that are being used and follows similar warnings from government advisors in December that private firms should not be allowed to offer body scans.

That study, from the Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment (Comare), said people may increase their risk of developing cancer by undergoing unnecessary scans involving radiation.

The Sense About Science report which was compiled in collaboration with the Association of Clinical Biochemistry, the PHG Foundation charity and the Royal College of Pathologists, says if doctors had time to give everyone an annual check up then there would be no need for the DIY health kits.

The report warns that tests taken outside the GP surgery or hospital setting should not be relied upon as many of the tests look for the presence of biomarkers, such as a particular genetic sequence or the level of cholesterol in the blood and cannot determine the implications or the factors, such as a person's lifestyle, which may affect results.

The report also warns against self-testing because of the risk of producing inaccurate results and says sending bodily fluids in the post could interfere with them.

The report warns about the lack of regulation or requirement for direct-to-consumer tests, and says anyone can set up a lab and sell tests.

The experts have called for a national system to evaluate diagnostic tests and a publicly accessible database to provide evidence of performance and usefulness.

According to the DOH the issue is of "significant concern" and the government is consulting on how best to respond.

Experts say companies offering DIY testing kits for allergies or genetic diseases as well as full body check ups should put data on their product's efficacy in a public database so their claims can be evaluated.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency ensures that home testing kits are safe and accurately measure what they say they do (for example cholesterol levels).

However there is no regulation surrounding whether that measurement is actually useful in diagnosing a disease and there is no requirement for companies to demonstrate the overall benefit of the test.

The scientists say regulation is needed because the benefits of testing are not straightforward and tests can even be harmful - a whole-body CT scan, for example, is believed to produce a fatal cancer in one in every 2,000 people investigated.

Testing can also lead to a false sense of security or raise fear and anxiety unnecessarily.