Knowledge of prostate cancer screening among native African urban population in Nigeria.

BACKGROUND

Cancer of the prostate a worldwide public health concern. It is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men and ranked second as the cause of cancer-related deaths.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the awareness and attitude of the populace to screening for cancer of the prostate.

METHODS

It is a cross-sectional study involving 156 respondents. A structured questionnaire detailing the biodata, the knowledge of cancer of prostate, the practice of screening by prostate specific antigen (PSA) estimation and the readiness to undergo screening by the respondent was used to obtain the set-out objectives.

RESULTS

A total of 156 respondents completed the questionnaire and forms the basis of further analysis. The mean age of the respondents is 44.15 (+/- 11.9) years. Majority of the respondents were civil servant (51.9%) followed closely by politicians. About 23.1% of them have no formal education while 53.8% have acquired tertiary education. The result shows that 78.8% have never heard any information on cancer of the prostate and only 5.8% have heard about PSA. None of the respondents have ever had PSA test done, even once. Eighty four per cent of the respondents are ready to pay for prostate cancer screening test by PSA assay.

CONCLUSION

We conclude that there was remarkable lack of awareness of prostate cancer among the Nigerian native African urban populace. Prostate cancer screening and serum PSA test for screening is globally unknown among them.