african-american and caribbean-born men’s perceptions of prostate cancer fear and facilitators for screening behavior: a pilot study

This study describes how a concurrent exploratory mixed methodology (cemm) approach was used to investigate perceptions of prostate cancer (cap) fear and facilitators of screening behavior in african-american (aa) and caribbean-born (cb) black men for instrument development. a quantitative paper-based questionnaire was modified, adapted, and administered to participants from the personal integrative model of prostate cancer disparity survey and the powe fatalism inventory. focus groups and individual interviews were conducted and analyzed using thematic analysis. of the 31 participants, 17 (55%) were cb black men and 14 (45%) were aa men. cb black men reported significantly higher mean perception of cap treatment scores compared to aa men (8.23 versus 6.14, p < 0.05). overall, the focus group and interview data revealed highly interrelated key themes. these themes included perceived barriers to cap screening (e.g., health-care affordability), misconceptions about cap (e.g., limited knowledge), and misinformation about cap (e.g., conflicting cap screening information from health-care providers). feeling responsible to make sure family members were taken care of and the role of a significant other were reported as motivation for visiting the doctor. as a result of the cemm design, a reliable survey instrument was developed to measure cap fear and facilitators for screening behavior within subpopulations of aa men, which is important because despite their shared genetic ancestry, aa and cb black males have very different lifestyles.