Genetic Testing Has Little Predictive Value for Type 2 Diabetes.

Genetic testing did not help predict who will develop type 2 diabetes in a study that tracked health outcomes for more than 15,000 European, South Asian, and Latino individuals over 3.3 years. The researchers looked at whether 16 single genetic changes, or single nucleotide polymorphisms, believed to be related to type 2 diabetes in Caucasians, played a role in the development of the disease for people of other ethnicities. Genetic associations are generally consistent across ethnic groups, and they only added marginal information to clinical factors for predicting who would develop diabetes. The findings are published in Diabetes Care.