TY - JOUR T1 - Direct-to-consumer genetic testing for predicting sports performance and talent identification: Consensus statement JF - British Journal of Sports Medicine JO - Br J Sports Med SP - 1486 LP - 1491 DO - 10.1136/bjsports-2015-095343 VL - 49 IS - 23 AU - Nick Webborn AU - Alun Williams AU - Mike McNamee AU - Claude Bouchard AU - Yannis Pitsiladis AU - Ildus Ahmetov AU - Euan Ashley AU - Nuala Byrne AU - Silvia Camporesi AU - Malcolm Collins AU - Paul Dijkstra AU - Nir Eynon AU - Noriyuki Fuku AU - Fleur C Garton AU - Nils Hoppe AU - Søren Holm AU - Jane Kaye AU - Vassilis Klissouras AU - Alejandro Lucia AU - Kamiel Maase AU - Colin Moran AU - Kathryn N North AU - Fabio Pigozzi AU - Guan Wang Y1 - 2015/12/01 UR - http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/49/23/1486.abstract N2 - The general consensus among sport and exercise genetics researchers is that genetic tests have no role to play in talent identification or the individualised prescription of training to maximise performance. Despite the lack of evidence, recent years have witnessed the rise of an emerging market of direct-to-consumer marketing (DTC) tests that claim to be able to identify children's athletic talents. Targeted consumers include mainly coaches and parents. There is concern among the scientific community that the current level of knowledge is being misrepresented for commercial purposes. There remains a lack of universally accepted guidelines and legislation for DTC testing in relation to all forms of genetic testing and not just for talent identification. There is concern over the lack of clarity of information over which specific genes or variants are being tested and the almost universal lack of appropriate genetic counselling for the interpretation of the genetic data to consumers. Furthermore independent studies have identified issues relating to quality control by DTC laboratories with different results being reported from samples from the same individual. Consequently, in the current state of knowledge, no child or young athlete should be exposed to DTC genetic testing to define or alter training or for talent identification aimed at selecting gifted children or adolescents. Large scale collaborative projects, may help to develop a stronger scientific foundation on these issues in the future. ER -