Demographic, Social Support, and Community Differences in Predictors of African-American and White Men Receiving Prostate Cancer Screening in the United States.

OBJECTIVE

To examine demographic, social support, and community factors from a national dataset that influence African-American (AA) and White men to receive prostate cancer screening (PCS) via the Digital Rectal Exam (DRE) or Prostate Specific Antigen Test (PSA).

DESIGN AND SAMPLE

A cross-sectional secondary analysis from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) provided the sample of AA (N = 377) and White (N = 971) men over the age of 40 years. Regression analysis with confidence intervals was utilized to examine the factors associated with AA and White men receiving PCS. The Social Ecological Model provided the theoretical framework.

MEASURES

Questionnaires from the NHANES dataset provided data for this study.

RESULTS

Age, education, and access to health care was associated with AA and White men receiving the DRE. Income and church attendance was only associated with White men receiving the DRE. Only White men had an association of income with receiving the PSA test and only AA men had an association of marital status with receiving the PSA test.

CONCLUSIONS

Cultural evaluations of PCS behaviors among AA men are necessary to decrease the health disparity of prostate cancer among the AA population.