Prostate Cancer Screening in African-American Men: The Role of Patient Education

Introduction

The primary purpose of the paper is to focus on screening for prostate cancer in African-American men by comparing patient education with no education regarding the issue for improving the rate of PSA (prostate specific antigen) screening. The prostate cancer is the most common kind of cancer in males which takes place in the prostate gland due to abnormal cells. Bone pain, blood in semen, discomfort and trouble urinating are the symptoms of the disease. Older age, obesity, family history and race are the risk factors that can cause this disease among men. It is identified that around 100% of men could live more than five years after diagnosing the issue. One can reduce the risk of the issue, but there is no proper prevention strategy to prevent the problem.

Methods

Google Scholar has been used to select the articles and the key words used include screening for prostate cancer in African-American males.

Literature Review

Part A: Main Components of Each Article

It is found that the prevalence and mortality from prostate cancer (PCa) are high in Afro-American males. According to Ashorobi et al., (2017), the prostate outreach project (POP) offers free education as well as early detection regarding the clinical problem to African-American (AA) men. The education about the issue used to deliver by video and evaluated through the questionnaire. Besides this, the screening of PCa includes the digital rectal examination and serum prostate-specific antigen. PCa examination, education and recruitment was successful but followed through abnormal screening examinations (ASE) led to failure to make a contribution to maintain the inconsistency in PCa results prominently among AAs if not solved.

PCa has become one of the leading cause of deaths among them fifty years or above. In the words of Oliver et al., (2018), the research gives information on those aspects which impacts the rustic AA men in their decisions for undergoing PCa screening with a particular emphasis on knowledge about the disease among them as well as their healthcare supporters. The method used was a longitudinal quantitative research. It was found that both the AA men and their healthcare supporters lack the knowledge of PCa.

As per Reidy et al., (2018), the purpose of the study was to critically review and discuss evidence from interventions intended for increasing knowledge about the reduction of cancer risks among the men. The study was carried on by conducting a systematic review with the help of six electronic databases. It has been found that interventions targeting for improving knowledge about the reduction of cancer risks among the men need a multimodal approach.

Intratumoral inflammations were observed to be connected with aggressive PCa among the AA men. As stated by Smith et al., (2017), inflammations can become a driver of aggressive PCa among AA men that could lead towards the hypothesis that the progression of the disease can be prevented by an anti-inflammatory drug such as aspirin. The relation between the use of aspirin and PCa had been examined in the NCI-Maryland Prostate Cancer Case-Control Study. The findings found that regular consumption of aspirin is related to less risks of advanced phase of PCa and increased chances of survival among the AA men.

As mentioned by Taylor et al., (2016), this research was a part of the current study that sought for developing and evaluating the materials for health education for helping the AA men in making informed decisions on screening for PCa. The study was carried on by the authors on eight focus teams with forty four members of Prince Hall Masons. The findings demonstrated the possibility to form educational-community collaborations with the aim to improve the disease in the AA communities.

Part B: Comparison and Contrast of the Articles

The limitations of the first article consist of the higher rate of partakers mislaid the follow-up, and the lack of monitoring was due to incomplete ascertainments.

The limitations of the second article are the small sample size that limited the generalizability, lack of written approval or evidence of participation in screening for PCa and also reliability as well as validity of the tests of the participants requires further study.

The limitations of the third article lack of meta-evaluation due to heterogeneity in research designs and the absence of interventions personalized to men with low and health literacy.

The limitation of the fourth article is that the participants were men mostly from the greater Baltimore region who often uses aspirin and have higher academic qualifications than the American adults. Another limitation us the usage of case-control design where recall partiality is the integral limitation.

The limitations of the fifth article are that the researchers faced difficulties in providing detailed information to all the members on reducing the adverse reactions and misconception about the study on the disease.

The similarities of the articles are that all the articles have emphasized on the fact that the AA men are at higher risk of PCa in terms of both mortality as well as incidence. They have also focused on the education and knowledge of screening for PCa for the AA men, which is significant for them to prevent the disease among them.

Areas of Future Research

The authors have noticed that when the question comes to prostate cancer and African-American men, the deaths from this illness have increased dramatically for the Afro-American men in comparison to other ethnic groups. This disease has become one of the leading cause of mortality among them fifty years or above (Alexis & Worsley, 2018). Recent reports have shown this disease is aggressive and begins at a very young age than any other groups. It has also been found that Afro-American men of all ages suffer from this disease at later phases of their life in comparison to other ethnic groups (Ogunsanya et al., 2017).

Various research institutions are conducting a study on prostate cancer for finding out the reasons for the high rate of this disease among the Afro-American men. They would examine the impacts of social stressors like early life events, biological and genetic factors, socioeconomic status, discrimination, location, home life and education in the growth and progress of this disease in Afro-American men (Owens et al., 2019). The participation in this research would help them for developing better treatments, catching aggressive cancer before growing and spreading of the disease and possibly save their lives (Owens, Kim & Tavakoli, 2019). The Afro-American men are less prospective in discussing their health conditions and take part to participate in researches. But their partaking is vital to further the research on the prostate cancer (Woods-Burnham et al., 2018).

Conclusion

The paper has summarized the prostate cancer screening among African-American men. It has been found that they have the higher chances of having this disease and higher rates of mortality. They are prone to this disease at the initial stages of the diagnosis and lead to the aggressive form of this disease. Various research institutions are conducting a study on prostate cancer for finding out the reasons for the high rate of this disease among the Afro-American men. Regarding the facts, it can be recommended that separate guidelines prostate cancer screening are significant for improving the outcomes and saving the lives of the Afro-American men.

References

Alexis, O., & Worsley, A. (2018). An integrative review exploring black men of African and Caribbean backgrounds, their fears of prostate cancer and their attitudes towards screening. Health Education Research, 33(2), 155-166.

Ashorobi, O. S., Frost, J., Wang, X., Roberson, P., Lin, E., Volk, R. J., & Pettaway, C. A. (2017). Prostate cancer education, detection, and follow-up in a community-based multiethnic cohort of medically underserved men. American Journal of Men's Health, 11(1), 82-91.

Ogunsanya, M. E., Brown, C. M., Odedina, F. T., Barner, J. C., Adedipe, T. B., & Corbell, B. (2017). Knowledge of prostate cancer and screening among young multiethnic black men. American Journal of Men's Health, 11(4), 1008-1018.

Oliver, J. S., Allen, R. S., Eichorst, M. K., Mieskowski, L., Ewell, P. J., Payne-Foster, P., & Ragin, C. (2018). A pilot study of prostate cancer knowledge among African American men and their health care advocates: Implications for screening decisions. Cancer Causes & Control, 29(7), 699-706.

Owens, O. L., Felder, T., Tavakoli, A. S., Revels, A. A., Friedman, D. B., Hughes-Halbert, C., & Hébert, J. R. (2019). Evaluation of a computer-based decision aid for promoting informed prostate cancer screening decisions among African American men: iDecide. American Journal of Health Promotion, 33(2), 267-278.

Owens, O. L., Kim, S., & Tavakoli, A. S. (2019). Are decision aids leading to shared prostate cancer screening decisions among African-American men? iDecide. Cancer Causes & Control, 30(7), 713-719.

Reidy, M., Saab, M. M., Hegarty, J., Von Wagner, C., O'Mahony, M., Murphy, M., & Drummond, F. J. (2018). Promoting men's knowledge of cancer risk reduction: A systematic review of interventions. Patient Education and Counseling, 101(8), 1322-1336.

Smith, C. J., Dorsey, T. H., Tang, W., Jordan, S. V., Loffredo, C. A., & Ambs, S. (2017). Aspirin use reduces the risk of aggressive prostate cancer and disease recurrence in African-American men. Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention Biomarkers, 26(6), 845-853.

Taylor, K. L., Turner, R. O., Davis III, J. L., Johnson, L., Schwartz, M. D., Kerner, J., & Leak, C. (2016). Improving knowledge of the prostate cancer screening dilemma among African American men: an academic-community partnership in Washington, DC. Public Health Reports, 116, 590-598.

Woods-Burnham, L., Stiel, L., Wilson, C., Montgomery, S., Durán, A. M., Ruckle, H. R., & Casiano, C. A. (2018). Physician consultations, prostate cancer knowledge, and PSA screening of African American men in the era of shared decision-making. American Journal of Men's Health, 12(4), 751-759.