Prostate cancer knowledge among low income minority men

Abstract

Purpose: We identified sociodemographic characteristics that predict poor disease understanding in low income, uninsured men with prostate cancer.

Materials and methods: A total of 399 low income, uninsured men with prostate cancer participating in the Men's Health Survey done by researchers at University of California-Los Angeles Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center completed questionnaires assessing their knowledge of prostate cancer. Logistic regression was used to identify sociodemographic factors, eg age, education level, language preference, ethnicity and relationship status, associated with poor prostate cancer knowledge.

Results: Most subjects were Latino (54% or 213 of 399), spoke English (53% or 213 of 399) and had a high school education or less (86% or 344 of 399). In the multivariate model increasing age (p<0.014) and less than a high school education (p<0.012) were associated with lower knowledge of disease, while Latino ethnicity and relationship status were not.

Conclusions: Among low income men with prostate cancer increasing age and less formal education were associated with lower knowledge of disease. Further study is needed to determine the roles of language preference and ethnicity in the understanding of the disease in patients with prostate cancer.