A community-driven intervention for prostate cancer screening in African Americans.

The purpose of the study was to assess the impact of an educational intervention on prostate cancer screening behavior and knowledge. Participants were 104 African American men, 45 years and older, who had not been screened for prostate cancer with a prostate-specific antigen and/or digital rectal exam within the past year. All participants received an intervention delivered by trained lay community educators using a prostate cancer educational brochure developed in collaboration with the community, with structured interviews preintervention and 3 months postintervention. The main study outcomes included prostate-specific antigen screening rates during the 3-month interval and knowledge, barriers to screenings, and decisional conflict around screening. Compared with the 46 men who did not get screened, the 58 participants who got screened were more likely to have greater than a high school education, annual household incomes ≥$25,000, and a family history of non-prostate cancer (p < .05). Average knowledge scores increased, and barriers to screening scores decreased, from preintervention to postintervention only for participants who had been screened (p < .05). The results of this study demonstrate the feasibility and efficacy of an academic institution collaborating with the African American community to develop a successful prostate cancer educational intervention, an approach that can be expanded to other cancers and other chronic diseases.

Factors influencing prostate cancer screening in low-income African Americans in Tennessee.

This study examined demographic and lifestyle factors that influenced decisions to get screened for prostate cancer in low-income African Americans in three urban Tennessee cities. It also examined obstacles to getting screened. As part of the Meharry Community Networks Program (CNP) needs assessment, a 123-item community survey was administered to assess demographic characteristics, health care access and utilization, and screening practices for various cancers in low-income African Americans. For this study, only African American men 45 years and older (n=293) were selected from the Meharry CNP community survey database. Participants from Nashville, those who were older, obese, and who had health insurance were more likely to have been screened (p<.05). Additionally, there were associations between obstacles to screening (such as cost and transportation) and geographic region (p<.05). Educational interventions aimed at improving prostate cancer knowledge and screening rates should incorporate information about obstacles to and predictors of screening.