Purpose
Prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death among men in the United States (U.S). Rates of prostate cancer incidence and deaths in the U.S. are twice as high for Black men than White men. These racial disparities are also observed in South Carolina. To address this issue, the Medical University of South Carolina Hollings Cancer Center (MUSC HCC) developed the South Carolina Prostate Cancer Screening Program for African American Men (SC AMEN Program). This program provides prostate cancer education and includes patient navigators to help overcome barriers related to the social drivers of health that could prevent Black men from receiving prostate cancer screening.
Methods
The SC AMEN program includes a one-hour evidence-based prostate cancer educational session that is delivered to Black men ages 40-69 years. The pre-test survey assesses prostate cancer knowledge using the validated PROCASE survey, which is administered again at post-test following the educational session. Each participant is then navigated to a physician to discuss prostate cancer screening over the next three months. The navigation intervention is modeled after the National Cancer Institute’s patient navigation training modules, which integrate adult learning theory, social cognitive theory, and social support theory into the intervention.
Results
Eighty percent of the 368 participants have either received prostate cancer screening (35%) or have scheduled a screening appointment (46%).
The total average pre-test score was 6.7/10 with a standard deviation of 1.7. The total average post-test score was 7.2/10 with a standard deviation of 1.5. The total point increase from pre-test to post-test was 0.5 indicating a statistically significant increase in prostate cancer knowledge results (p<0.001).
Conclusion
The SC AMEN program appears to be successful in increasing the study participants’ knowledge of prostate cancer and informed decision making for prostate cancer screening.