Impact of Community-based Cancer Initiative on Health Knowledge Regarding Prostate Cancer

Abstract

Introduction: Although in recent decades deaths from prostate cancer have declined among all men, Black men in the US are twice as likely as non-Hispanic White men to die of prostate cancer and continue to have the highest prostate cancer mortality among all US population groups (American Cancer Society, 2021). Within the United States this phenomenon becomes more apparent in areas with a high density of Black Americans, for example the state of Georgia. There, disparity can be seen in prostate cancer with a rate of 50.3 deaths per 100,000 versus 18.4 deaths per 100,000 for non-Hispanic White men (Georgia Cancer Data Reports, 2016). Consensus agrees that these health inequalities exist due to a multitude of social, economic, and cultural factors. These include cultural attitudes towards cancer, and accessibility to healthcare. The cost of health inequality is human lives, thus, reducing the disparities seen in the Black American community is imperative. One initiative that has set out to tackle this is the Cancer Health Awareness through screeNinG and Education (CHANGE) program. CHANGE aims to reduce Black American racial disparities in prostate, colorectal, and breast cancer through education, navigation to screening, and provider cultural competency improvement. Researchers used an evidence-based template, with an emphasis on modifiable risk factor prevention (such as smoking or obesity), to develop informative classes on cancer screening eligibility, access to screening at the Georgia Cancer Center, and encouragement of early detection behaviors to promote health knowledge and self-efficacy. The CHANGE initiative presented four community-tailored sessions with a focus on cancer, screening, and modifiable risk factors guided by a trained facilitator. To gather evidence of acquired health knowledge an assessment survey was sent out before and after the sessions took place.