Posted 30 January 2024
Australian researchers have found most direct-to-consumer (DTC) diagnostic, screening and risk-monitoring tests sold online are unlikely to benefit the average consumer.
Reference: Shih P, and others. Direct-to-consumer tests advertised online in Australia and their implications for medical overuse: Systematic online review and a typology of clinical utility. BMJ Open, 13(12):e074205, 2023
Two of the researchers independently conducted systematic searches using Google and Google Shopping in October 2020 and identified 177 home self-tests, 65 self-collected direct-access pathology tests (DAPTs), and 242 lab-collected DAPTs. Out of all 484 tests, researchers found:
- 7% had potential clinical utility
- 6% had limited clinical utility
- 9% were non-evidence-based commercial ‘health checks’
- 7% had methods and/or target conditions not recognized by the general medical community
The last category included these methods lacking clinical validity for conditions they’re intended to test for:
- (a) hair metal and mineral analysis, and mycotoxin test for environmental
