Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Aug 8:2022:4621446.
doi: 10.1155/2022/4621446. eCollection 2022.

Effectiveness of a Community Health Worker-Led Intervention on Knowledge, Perception, and Prostate Cancer Screening among Men in Rural Kenya

Ruth Gathoni Mbugua  1 , Simon Karanja  2 , Sherry Oluchina  3
Affiliations

Effectiveness of a Community Health Worker-Led Intervention on Knowledge, Perception, and Prostate Cancer Screening among Men in Rural Kenya

Ruth Gathoni Mbugua et al. Adv Prev Med. .

Abstract

Background: Globally, an increase in mortality from prostate cancer (PC) remains a big challenge with disparities existing with a slight preponderance among men in low and middle-income countries. Prostate cancer is a leading cause of mortality among men in sub-Saharan Africa. In Kenya, despite the majority of men presenting with advanced prostate cancer for treatment, knowledge and screening for prostate cancer is low. The study aimed to examine the effectiveness of a community health worker-led education intervention on knowledge, perception, and PC screening.

Methods: This was a quasiexperimental study among Kenyan men aged 40-69 years. The intervention site was Gatundu North subcounty and the control site was Kiambu subcounty in Kiambu County. Stratified random sampling was applied to select 288 respondents per arm of the study. We used a pretested interviewer-administered questionnaire to collect data at baseline and 6 months postintervention. Pearson's chi-square test was used for data analysis.

Results: Awareness of prostate cancer significantly increased postintervention (P < 0.05). The proportion of respondents who had good knowledge of prostate cancer increased significantly from 49% to 76.4%(P < 0.05) in the intervention arm. The proportion of respondents with a high perception of self-vulnerability increased significantly from 26% to 42.1% (P < 0.05). The proportion of men who had undergone PC screening significantly increased from 4.5% to 20.4% (P < 0.05) in the intervention arm. In postintervention, there was a statistically significant difference in the proportion of men screened for prostate cancer in the intervention and control arm (P < 0.05).

Conclusion: Health education by community health workers during household visits increased awareness and knowledge, perception, and uptake of PC screening. Utilization of community health worker delivered education is an effective strategy that requires to be adopted to enhance screening.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
CONSORT diagram of study participants in the arms of the study.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Diagrammatic representation of the community-based health education intervention.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Sung H., Ferlay J., Siegel R. L., et al. Global cancer statistics 2020: GLOBOCAN estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries. CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians . 2021;71(3):209–249. doi: 10.3322/caac.21660. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Adeloye D., David R. A., Aderemi A. V., et al. An estimate of the incidence of prostate cancer in Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS One . 2016;11(4) doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0153496.e0153496 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Seraphin T. P., Joko-Fru W. Y., Manraj S. S., et al. Prostate cancer survival in sub-Saharan Africa by age, stage at diagnosis, and human development index: a population-based registry study. Cancer Causes & Control . 2021;32(9):1001–1019. doi: 10.1007/s10552-021-01453-x. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Abate D., Abate K. H., Abay S. M., Abbafati C., Abbasi N., Abdollahpour I. Global, regional, and national age-sex-specific mortality for 282 causes of death in 195 countries and territories, 1980–2017: a systematic analysis for the global burden of disease study 2017. The Lancet . 2018;392(10159):1736–1788. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(18)32203-7. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ministry of Health. National-Cancer-Screening-Guidelines-2018. 2018. https://www.health.go.ke/wpcontent/uploads/2019/02/National-Cancer-Scree... .

LinkOut - more resources