Poor health? Easier for some to blame bad genes than change lifestyle

Does knowing that genes are partly responsible for your health condition mean you are less likely to be motivated to find out about the benefits of behavioural changes? According to Dr Suzanne O'Neill from the National Human Genome Research Institute/National Institutes of Health, and her colleagues, people on the whole are still interested in how health habits affect disease risk. However, those with the greatest need to change their behaviours are more likely to favour genetic explanations for their diseases and the more behavioural risk factors they have, the less likely they are to be interested in behaviour change information. The study is published online in Springer's journal Annals of Behavioural Medicine...

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