| Abstract [eng] |
Integration of biobanks into contemporary medicine and public health opens new opportunities and brings a huge potential in the fields of disease prevention, diagnostics, prognosis, and treatment. Therefore, it is important to provide scientific explanation of the role biobanks can play in public health and to identify factors that can influence decisions of the public to participate in the activities of biobanks. The main objective of this work is to evaluate importance of biobanks in the context of public health and to identify the factors that, in the opinion of students of Medical faculty of Vilnius University, would promote or, in contrast, would stop the development of biobanks. Five tasks have been distinguished to reach this goal: (1) to evaluate the importance of biobanks in the context of public health; (2) to identify the main factors, which could influence the consent or refusal to donate biological specimen and (3) health information to a biobank; (4) to reveal the opinion of students of Medical faculty of Vilnius University on the provision of information to a biobank participant, in case participation in a biobank had revealed a presence of disease or a predisposition to some diseases; (5) identify the most effective measures to spread information about biobanks to the public. Literature review includes analysis of different documents on biobanks. The data of students of Medical faculty of Vilnius University has been collected by the survey. Sample size has been calculated using Factus online sample size calculator, data entry has been done using EpiData (version 3.1.1), analysis – using Stata (version 12). Results of the survey have revealed that the use of biobanks and available genetic information is important for the development of public health. The majority of the respondents would agree to donate their residual samples, other biological specimens and health information, however, the willingness to donate depends on the information they have on biobanks. The most effective way to spread this information is delivering it at health care institutions and publishing articles in the online journals. Biobanks are important infrastructures for the development of public health because of their role in integration of personalized medicine into the realization of the public health functions. Knowledge about biobanks, willingness to contribute to the progress of science and well-being of the public can be regarded as the most important factors to participate in biobank activities. Reasons of the refusal include the fear of possible public reach and misuse of health information, also distrust on personal privacy protecting institutions. |
