Original scientific paper
ACCESSIBILITY AND CONFIDENTIALITY OF INFORMATION ABOUT GENETIC DISEASES
Stjepan Orešković
; Faculty of Medicine, Zagreb
Abstract
The paper is based on the research of views of male and female students of several faculties of University of Zagreb concerning accessibility and the degree of confidentiality of information about a person who has a potential of a hereditary disease. The results have been compared to the ones obtained in similar kinds of research in the USA (the subjects belonged to self–protecting groups of carriers of genetic diseases) and the professional associations of doctors. The highest degree of choice of negative answers is expressed according to the view that the employer has access to information (92%). The choice of positive answers prevailed in the standpoints towards the right of the accessibility of information to the husband/wife (90.8%). The confidentiality/obligatoriness of information was checked by question: Who should – in Your opinion – the person communicate that information to? As many as 86.6% of subjects think that the employer should not have information on the possible illness of his employee. In contrast to employers and insurance agents there is a doctor of primary medical care (as much as 88.6% of the subjects would confide such an information to a doctor), which represents a higher degree of confidentiality. The highest level of confidentiality among students–subjects belongs to the husband/wife (96.9%).
Keywords
accessibility; confidentiality; genetic diseases; information
Hrčak ID:
141529
URI
Publication date:
15.5.1997.
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