A Church-Based Educational Program to Increase Prostate Cancer Screening for Black Men 40 and Older

Purpose: Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men in the United States and is one of the leading causes of cancer death among men of all races. However, African-American men are at particularly high risk. These men are diagnosed more often with prostate cancer, are diagnosed later, and are more than twice as likely to die from prostate cancer than are Caucasian men. African American men have the highest incidence of being diagnosed with prostate cancer at the late stage of disease advancement. This is because:The disease symptoms are ignored, their low socio-economical status and lack of health insurance (CDC, 2014). A strategy to address this inequity was to develop a community based program that would reach this at risk population. The goal of the project was to develop an evidence-based, theory-supported education and referral program to promote prostate cancer prevention screening among African-American men utilizing New York community church settings. The resultant scholarly project aims to motivate the target population towards prostate cancer prevention screening as appropriate through the development of an evidence-based, theory-supported, community-focused education and referral program using self-efficacy theory. This project provides a program, grounded in self-efficacy, that will educate African-American men about prostate cancer, empower them with knowledge regarding risk, motivate them to seek preventative screenings, and obtain care if needed. Methods: An evaluation strategy was developed incorporating a post-test questionnaire to measure participant knowledge and self-efficacy along with a process for measuring referrals to local screening and treatment programs. Results: This intervention aims to increase access to and utilization of prostate cancer testing at the Neighborhood Community Health Center. The program will bring about positive social change through empowerment of a population of men suffering from disparate access to care resulting in increased morbidity and mortality. Conclusion: Dissemination of the project will include presentations to the community church leaders and Caribbean healthcare professionals, as well as publication in Parish nursing journals.