Factors Influencing Prostate Cancer Screening Among Men from Eastern Kenya

Abstract

Prostate cancer is the most prevalent urological cancer and causes a significant global health burden, especially in developed countries. It is the most frequently diagnosed cancer among men in more than half of the countries in the world. Early diagnosis minimizes complications and mortalities associated with it. In Kenya it is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among men and usually characterized with low rates of screening and late diagnosis. Several factors have been found to influence prostate cancer screening. This study sought to establish factors influencing prostate cancer screening in the rural settings of Tharaka Nithi County in Eastern Kenya. The study adopted cross-sectional design in which researcher-administered questionnaires were used to collect data. Multi-stage sampling was used to recruit 379 men who were 40 years old and above who participated in the study. Data analysis was done using the statistical package of Social Science version 22. Frequencies and percentages were used for data presentation. Chi square (χ2) and Fisher’s exact test were used test relationship between dependent and independent variables. P-value of <0.05 were used to declare factors as significantly associated with the outcome variable. Results showed that the awareness level of prostate cancer was high (85.2%) and screening levels for prostate cancer were low (4.5%). Factors found to be significantly associated with PCa testing were education level (Fisher's exact P< 0.001), awareness of PCa screening (Fisher's exact P=0.028), awareness of specific prostate cancer tests ( Fisher's exact p < 0.001), family history of prostate cancer (χ2 = 36.14, P< 0.001), cost of prostate cancer test (Fisher's exact p =0.001), insufficient information on PCa (χ2 = 13.55, p =0.001) and cultural factors (χ2 = 5.63, p =0.023). Conclusions: Although prostate cancer awareness level was high, prostate cancer screening rates were low among men from Tharaka Nithi County. Several factors influencing screening were identified, some of which were hindrances. There is therefore need for the county government to come up with appropriate strategies to address these hindrances and scale up screening services at the community level to facilitate early diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer.