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. 2016 Aug 29;11(8):e0161822.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0161822. eCollection 2016.

Spitting for Science: Danish High School Students Commit to a Large-Scale Self-Reported Genetic Study

Georgios Athanasiadis  1   2 , Frank G Jørgensen  3 , Jade Y Cheng  1 , Peter C Kjærgaard  2   4   5 , Mikkel H Schierup  1   2   6 , Thomas Mailund  1   2
Affiliations

Spitting for Science: Danish High School Students Commit to a Large-Scale Self-Reported Genetic Study

Georgios Athanasiadis et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Scientific outreach delivers science to the people. But it can also deliver people to the science. In this work, we report our experience from a large-scale public engagement project promoting genomic literacy among Danish high school students with the additional benefit of collecting data for studying the genetic makeup of the Danish population. Not only did we confirm that students have a great interest in their genetic past, but we were also gratified to see that, with the right motivation, adolescents can provide high-quality data for genetic studies.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Flowchart of the Where Are You From? project.
The flowchart displays recruitment, dropout and exclusion rates, as well as tentative reasons for the latter two.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Timeline of the Where Are You From? project.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Geographic distribution of the 36 Danish high schools participating in the Where Are You From? project.
Color code reflects the five administrative divisions of Denmark. Number of schools per division is shown in brackets. Jutland (and Aarhus in particular) high schools were overrepresented in the sampling, due to their proximity to the symposium site in Aarhus University campus.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Summary of sample recruitment.
(A) Six hundred students from 33 different schools provided both genetic and questionnaire data. (B) Histogram of % questionnaire completeness (N = 662). (C-E) Box plots (median and interquartile range) of % questionnaire completeness by sex, age and highest parental education level (1 = unskilled; 2 = skilled; 3 = short-term higher education; 4 = long-term higher education). Whiskers represent data within 1.5 times the interquartile range and circles represent outliers. Per-individual completeness was defined as the number of fields completed with valid answers over the total number of fields.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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