Applicability of a video intervention to increase informed decision making for prostate-specific antigen testing.

PURPOSE

To evaluate the applicability of an evidence-based video intervention to promote informed decision making for prostate cancer screening among African American men with different levels of health literacy.

METHODS

Forty nine African American men participated in interviewer-administered, pretest and posttest interviews between January and March 2008. Health literacy status was assessed with the Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults. Repeated measures analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), McNemar or binomial distributions were computed to assess pretest and posttest differences in knowledge. Descriptive statistics were produced to describe participants' perceptions of the information presented in the video.

RESULTS

Results indicated that men with functional health literacy had higher mean levels of prostate cancer screening knowledge at baseline than men with inadequate health literacy. The between-group (F2,44= 4.84; p = .013) and within-group (F1,44 = 5.16; p = .028) test results from repeated-measures ANCOVA indicated that preexisting group differences in prostate cancer knowledge had lessened after intervention exposure. Nearly all men rated the information presented in the video as credible (98%), trustworthy (96%), interesting (100%), understandable (94%), and complete (96%).

CONCLUSIONS

Results from this exploratory study suggest that the video intervention is suitable for use with African American men with different health literacy characteristics in 2 counties in the greater Florida panhandle region. More research is recommended to evaluate the impact of the intervention on men's intentions to undergo screening and actual screening behavior.