"On the Futility of Screening for Genes that Make You Fat"

J. Lennert Veerman (Univ. Queensland) has a nice commentary out in the latest PLoS Medicine entitled On the Futility of Screening for Genes that Make You Fat.  Like all papers in this journal, it is available full-text and open-access.  There is no Abstract, but here is an excerpt that sets up the commentary:

There are at least four reasons why screening individuals for genes that predispose to obesity makes little clinical sense and may even do harm. Genetic screening for obesity has limited predictive power, is unlikely to inform therapeutic decisions, does not add to body mass index (BMI) as predictor of disease, and may distract from the societal changes that most experts think are needed to reduce the prevalence of obesity.

The commentary is highly recommended.

Comments

[Lennert Veerman]

Thanks!

Just read your article about obesity stigma - very interesting.

You mentioned that "many Americans believe in the so-called just world theory—that people generally earn their lot in life". Seems very plausible; you also see that back in discussions about inequalities in other areas.

[Daniel S. Goldberg]

Dr. Veerman,

No problem at all, and thanks for the kind words on my short obesity stigma piece. I and others believe the just world point is actually of critical importance (and I have a larger paper exploring the perceived links between sin and suffering and the prevalence of chronic pain stigma . . . I can send it along if you'd care to have more of my work inflicted on you!)

And I agree that the just world theory is fundamentally linked to analysis of social & health inequalities.

Thanks for stopping by MH Blog!