Survey of urologists on clients' demand for screening for prostate cancer in Nigeria.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this article is to document the experience of urologists on clients' demand for prostate cancer screening among Nigerians.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The study is a cross-sectional evaluation of the urologists that attended the Fourteenth Annual Meeting and the Scientific Conference of the Nigerian Association of Urological Surgeons. A structured questionnaire was used to assess the estimated workload of the respondents, with reference to prostate cancer management, the stage proportion at the time of diagnosis, and the proportion of patients requesting for CaP screening. The data was analyzed using the SPSS version 15 statistical software.

RESULTS

Twenty-two respondents completed and returned the questionnaire and formed the basis of further analysis. About 76.9% of the consultant urologists were also lecturers in their respective universities. They were all actively practicing and a majority of them, 76.9%, had up to 10 years experience as practicing urologists. The majority of the respondents managed between one and fifteen new patients with CaP every month, with 36.4% of them managing more than 15 new patients on an average every month. About 95.4% of all the patients seen by the respondents were diagnosed with advanced stages of the disease, while the remaining ones were incidental findings. About one half of the respondents attended to clients seeking for advice on CaP 'often' or 'very often,' while 40.9% attended to them 'occasionally,' with a mean of 4.67 clients seeking advice per month. The majority of respondents, 20 (22); 90.9%, were 'not aware' of any national guideline on CaP screening.

CONCLUSIONS

A majority of practitioners affirmed that patients with prostate cancer present late. The mean number of patients requesting for screening for prostate cancer per month, per respondent, for CaP, is still low. It is the authors' belief that the trend may not change until there is an appropriate effort at health education, to enlighten the populace.