men without health maintenance examination had a PSA screening (chi 2, P < .001), after adjusting for race, insurance status, and age.
Comparison of PSA screening use before and after the November 1992 publication of the American Cancer Society guidelines on PSA screening revealed that PSA screening after the publication date was 26 percent, compared with 19 percent before publication, adjusting for health maintenance examination and the length of time for which the patient was eligible for screening.
However, it was found that, all other factors being equal, black men were far less likely than white men to have PSA screening.
This racial differences needs to be explained. In this regard, the question can be asked: Are incorrect beliefs about the effects of prostate cancer screening on sexual functioning stopping African-American men from seeking routine screening for prostate cancer? The proposed study is designed to answer this question. Specifically, an attempt will be made to answer this question by computing correlations between subjects':
(1) degree of willingness to undergo prostate cancer screening and level of incorrect beliefs regarding the effects of prostate cancer screening on sexual functioning;
(2) degree of willingness to undergo prostate cancer screening and degree of knowledge regarding the symptoms of prostate cancer; and
(3) degree of knowledge regarding the symptoms of prostate cancer and level of incorrect beliefs regarding the effects of prostate cancer screening on sexual functioning.
All correlations will be computed for white male subjects and for black male subjects. Comparison analyses will then be performed to determine whether the magnitude of any observed correlations significantly differs as a function of race. Further, the three correlations will be computed for the sample as a whole. Also, degree of willingness to undergo prostate cancer screening, degree of knowl...