Ukoli, F. A., Patel, K., Hargreaves, M., Beard, K., Moton, P. J., Bragg, R., et al. (2013). A Tailored Prostate Cancer Education Intervention for Low-income African Americans: Impact on Knowledge and Screening. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 24(1), 311-331.

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.

Access to full article can be found here:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23377736