title: Prevention, Use of Health Services, and Genes: Implications of Genetics for Policy Formation.
abstract: We evaluate the hypothesis that genetic factors influence the use of health services and prevention behaviors in a national sample of adult twins in the United States. The analysis compares the correlation of these outcomes between identical twins, who share all their genes, to the correlation between nonidentical twins, who share, on average, only one-half of their genes. Because the environmental similarities of twins are assumed to be the same for identical and nonidentical twin pairs, researchers can partition the variance in behavioral outcomes that are due to genetic and environmental factors. Using established methods in this field, we find evidence of significant genetic influences on preferences toward prevention, overall prevention effort, routine checkups, and prescription drug use. Use of curative services does not appear to be influenced by genes. Our findings offer several implications for policymakers and researchers and suggest that genetics could be informative for health services and policy research.
authors.affiliation: National Bureau of Economic Research, and Departments of Health Management and Policy, Economics, Preventive & Community Dentistry, and the Public Policy center at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242. george-wehby@uiowa.edu
authors.forename: George L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Wehby
authors.affiliation: Institute of Behavioral Science at the University of Colorad, Boulder, CO 80302. Benjamin.domingue@colorado.edu
authors.forename: Benjamin W
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: Domingue
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology & the Institute of Behavioral Science at the University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80302. boardman@colorado.edu
authors.forename: Jason D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Boardman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D033141:Genetic Determinism; D015438:Health Behavior; D006296:Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D011050:Policy Making; D011322:Primary Prevention; D014429:Twins, Dizygotic / Q000235:genetics; D014430:Twins, Monozygotic / Q000235:genetics; D014481:United States