Barriers to adopting genomics into public health education: A mixed methods study

Abstract

Purpose: To examine public health educators' perceptions of barriers to incorporate genomic content (information, discoveries, technologies) into health promotion. Methods: Mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative approaches) - using a fully mixed sequential dominant status design - were employed. Qualitative data were collected from a convenient sample of 24 public health educators, through personal interviews. Quantitative data, from a nation-wide sample of 1607 professionals (from four professional organizations/ groups), were collected through a Web-based survey (adjusted response rate = 23.1%). Content analysis guided the interpretation of the qualitative data; descriptive statistics were used to analyze the survey data and to compare prevalence of themes across the qualitative and survey samples. Results: Specific barriers highlighted by the qualitative and the survey samples included lack of genomic knowledge (basic and applied), having to deal with the lay public's reaction, lack of priority, time and resources, and incompatibility between genomics and public health educators' religious and ethical beliefs. Conclusion: This study suggests that public health educators perceive numerous barriers to incorporating genomics into health promotion. More research is needed to confirm this study's findings, to explore potential sources, and to propose viable strategies to overcome many of these barriers.