Home DNA Health Tests

Millions of Americans have swabbed their cheeks to learn about their ancestry; now DIY tests promise to reveal whether you’re at risk for conditions like cancer, Alzheimer’s and cardiovascular disease. How reliable are they?

- Hallie Levine

More than 26 million a mericans have taken some type of home DNA test to learn more information about themselves. If you’re one of them, you’ve probably found the results fascinating, and even surprising (you had no idea you were .05 percent Iberian Peninsula!).

But some of these companies have taken it a step further by offering tests that screen you for specific gene variants that raise your risk of potentially serious health conditions such as Alzheimer's, heart disease and even cancer. Companies offer tests that range from a couple hundred dollars to look for a few key gene markers to others that can cost over $1,000 and claim to sequence your entire genome. Yet whatever the cost, all offer the same level of convenience: you receive a kit at home, you either swab your cheek or spit into a vial, send it back to the company then check online a few weeks later for results.

Not surprisingly, sales of these at home tests are spiking. “People are curious—in this era of sequencing genomes, they want to know all about their DNA, not only where they’re from, but how it impacts their health,” says Gillian Hooker, PhD, ScM, LCGC, president of the National Society of Genetic Counselors. Almost 60 percent of people who take these home DNA health test do so as a way to proactively manage their health, according to a 2017 study published in the journal Public Health Genomics.