Polygenic Risk Score Test

What a polygenic risk score tells you

Most common diseases - heart disease, type 2 diabetes, the common cancers - aren't caused by a single faulty gene. They're shaped by the combined effect of large numbers of common DNA variants, each nudging your risk up or down by a tiny amount. A polygenic risk score (PRS) adds all of those small effects together into one number: an estimate of how your inherited risk for a condition compares with the rest of the population.

That makes a PRS fundamentally different from the genetic tests you may already know:

• Carrier screening looks for rare recessive variants that matter for family planning.
• Hereditary cancer panels (e.g. BRCA1/2) look for rare, high-impact mutations.
• A polygenic risk score captures the common genetic background that everyone carries - the part conventional gene tests miss.

It estimates inherited risk only: a PRS is not a diagnosis, not a prediction that you will or won't develop a condition, and not a replacement for the NHS screening you're entitled to.

Want the full picture? Read our guide to how polygenic risk scores work - from genome-wide studies to your personalised result.

The conditions we score

Your report gives an ancestry-specific polygenic risk score across more than 20 conditions, grouped into:

• Cancers - breast (women), ovarian (women), prostate (men), pancreatic, colorectal (bowel) and melanoma
• Heart & circulation - coronary artery disease, stroke, atrial fibrillation and high blood pressure
• Cholesterol & lipids - high cholesterol, high triglycerides, low HDL ("good") cholesterol and raised lipoprotein(a)
• Metabolic - type 2 diabetes and body-mass index
• Brain - Alzheimer's disease (see the note below)
• Immune, digestive, bone & hormonal - inflammatory bowel disease, coeliac disease, osteoporosis and early menopause (women)

The exact set scored depends on your sex and anatomy - breast and ovarian scores are reported for women, prostate for men.

Predictive performance is not the same for every condition. Polygenic scores are more strongly established and validated for some conditions (such as coronary artery disease, breast cancer, type 2 diabetes and lipoprotein(a)) than for others, and accuracy also varies by genetic ancestry. Treat each score as one input among many - not a verdict - and use the free genetic-counselling consultation to understand how much weight to give each result.

A note on the Alzheimer's score. Alzheimer's risk is dominated by a single common gene (APOE), so this result behaves more like a single-gene finding than a true polygenic score, and its accuracy varies more by ancestry. There is currently no proven way to prevent Alzheimer's disease, and some people find this result distressing. We strongly recommend using the free genetic-counselling consultation included with your order - before and after testing - to decide whether you want this score and to understand what it means.

Why ancestry matters - and why we use Allelica

Here's the catch most direct-to-consumer DNA tests don't mention: the large majority of published polygenic scores were built almost entirely from European-ancestry data, and they lose accuracy when applied to people of African, South Asian, East Asian or mixed heritage.

Allelica is built specifically to address this. Its models are ancestry-specific, designed to give a better-calibrated score across diverse backgrounds. These methods narrow that accuracy gap rather than remove it entirely - but they make your result more reliable than a one-size-fits-all score, whatever your heritage. That calibration is the single biggest reason we chose Allelica as our lab partner.

What's included

• Ancestry-specific polygenic risk scores for every condition on your panel
• An at-home saliva-collection kit, posted to your door - no clinic visit, no blood, no fasting
• Laboratory genotyping and analysis by Allelica
• A personalised, plain-English report showing where you sit relative to the population, for each condition
• A free consultation with a genetic counsellor to talk through what your results mean and what to do next

What a polygenic risk score can - and can't - do

We think it's important to be straight about this.

A PRS can show that your inherited risk for a condition is higher (or lower) than average - which, alongside your other risk factors, can help you and your doctor think about prevention and screening.

A PRS cannot diagnose disease or tell you whether you will develop a condition, and it is not equally reliable for every condition on the panel. Your actual risk also depends on age, sex, family history, lifestyle and clinical measurements like blood pressure and cholesterol. A high score is not a diagnosis, and a low score is not a guarantee. We recommend discussing your result with a GP or a genetic counsellor before making any medical decisions - and this test is not a substitute for the NHS screening you're already entitled to.

Who it's for

Adults (18+) who want to understand their inherited risk for common diseases and use it to think about prevention earlier - especially anyone with a family history of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, raised cholesterol, the common cancers or dementia who wants a clearer picture than family history alone can give.