African American men bear disproportionate burden of prostate cancer (PCa) that can be reduced by early detection.
A 15-minute culturally appropriate PCa education intervention developed to communicate effective, relevant, and balanced PCa screening information to low-income African American men was evaluated in men 42 years and older who had not been screened in one year. Of 539 men enrolled, 392 (72.7%) completed the six-month follow-up. Mean age was 54.4±8.9, 34.7% had no high school diploma, and 65.3% earned less than $25,000 annually. Barriers to screening included health insurance (41.4%), discomfort of digital rectal exam (32.1%), and fear of cancer diagnosis (29.9%). Mean knowledge score of 21 points increased from 13.27±3.51 to 14.95±4.14 (p<.001), and prostate-specific antigen screening from 22.1% to 62.8%. Men without high school diploma recorded the lowest post-intervention PCa knowledge and screening rate (47.7%), suggestive of the need for more than a single education session. Annual physicals with free prostate examination can maintain the positive trend observed.
Written by:
Ukoli FA, Patel K, Hargreaves M, Beard K, Moton PJ, Bragg R, Beech D, Davis R. Are you the author?
Reference: J Health Care Poor Underserved. 2013;24(1):311-31.
doi: 10.1353/hpu.2013.0033
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 23377736
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