Factors associated with prostate cancer knowledge of African-American men

B65 Background: African American men continue to be disproportionately impacted by prostate cancer. According to the American Cancer Society’s latest release (2007), African American men are one and a half times as likely to get prostate cancer, and two and a half times as likely to die from it compared to their white counterparts. Controversy about current screening technology has made government agencies reluctant to encourage screening, and instead, recommend that patients engage in informed decision-making with their providers to decide whether or not to screen for prostate cancer. In order for informed decision-making to be effective, the patient must have adequate knowledge about the disease as well as the pros and cons of screening. Previous studies have found that prostate cancer knowledge is low among African American men, the very group that faces the disproportionate burden of this disease. The problem is that most studies did not use a random sample of the population for their analysis. Many studies used men already diagnosed with the disease, or siblings of men already diagnosed. Study Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the demographic factors associated with prostate cancer knowledge within the African American population. Data and Methods: This study used a random sample of 175 African American men in Florida age 40 and over, with no previous prostate cancer diagnosis. The data were collected in 2005 as part of a longitudinal prostate cancer project conducted over five years. The study instrument was developed, pretested in an African American population, and revised as part of this project. To assess prostate cancer knowledge, a knowledge scale developed by the study Principal Investigator was used. Based on the pretest results, three items were deleted from the original knowledge scale. Previous studies have found that prostate cancer knowledge is associated with age, low literacy and education, income, family history, and rural residence. A multivariate linear regression model was estimated to determine what demographic factors are significantly related to participant’s prostate cancer knowledge. The dependent variable was the participant’s percentage correct on a twelve item scale of prostate cancer knowledge. The independent predictors were age, income, education, marital status, and rural residence. Results and Conclusions: The estimated regression model indicated that only two of the five factors, age and income, were significantly related to knowledge. Both factors have positive estimated coefficients indicating that increases in either age or income were associated with higher prostate cancer knowledge. The lack of significance for education and marital status could be explained by multicollinearity. Both factors were found to be highly correlated with income. In conclusion, this study indicates that income continues to be an important factor contributing to disparities in the burden of prostate cancer. In order to effectively address this disparity, policies should focus on educating low-income African American men before they are faced with the dilemmas accompanying a prostate cancer diagnosis.