Prostate Screening in Older African American and African Caribbean Men

Columbia University Health Sciences, New York NY

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Abstract

Aims: There are two main aims of this population-based study of prostate cancer screening: 1) To examine the relative contribution of economic, sociocognitive and socioemotional variables to the low rates of prostate cancer screening among minority men, and 2) To examine within-group differences in sub-populations of African Americans. The groups of interest will be those with the highest prostate cancer rates in the world: US-born African Americans, Jamaicans, and Trinidadians. Method: An area probability sample of 560 men residing in Brooklyn, New York, will be drawn using the resources of the U54's Recruitment Core. There will be 140 men in each of the three ethnic groups including a European American contrast group. Participants will fill out a Demographics Questionnaire, an Access and Referral Questionnaire (ease of access of screening tests, presence or absence of physician referral), a Cancer Knowledge Questionnaire, a Health Beliefs Questionnaire, and a set of socioemotional scales including trait motion, stress, emotion regulation styles, social network, and relatedness measures. The dependent variables will be number of prostate specific antigen (PSA) tests and digital rectal exams (DRE's) over a ten year period. Analysis: Hierarchical multiple regression will be used to asses the relative contribution of sociocognitive and socioemotional variables to prostate cancer screening. It is expected that these variables will contribute variance over and above that contributed by demographics and access/referral variables. It is also expected that the several ethnic groups will demonstrate different profiles with respect to the predictors that are most highly associated with screening.