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A test of knowledge about prostate cancer screening

Online pilot evaluation among southern california physicians

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Abstract

BACKGROUND: Although the benefits of prostate cancer screening are uncertain and guidelines recommend that physicians share the screening decision with their patients, most U.S. men over age 50 are routinely screened, often without counseling.

OBJECTIVE: To develop an instrument for assessing physicians’ knowledge related to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendations on prostate cancer screening.

PARTICIPANTS: Seventy internists, family physicians, and general practitioners in the Los Angeles area who deliver primary care to adult men.

MEASUREMENTS: We assessed knowledge related to prostate cancer screening (natural history, test characteristics, treatment effects, and guideline recommendations), beliefs about the net benefits of screening, and prostate cancer screening practices for men in different age groups, using an online survey. We constructed a knowledge scale having 15 multiple-choice items.

RESULTS: Participants’ mean knowledge score was 7.4 (range 3 to 12) of 15 (Cronbach’s α=0.71). Higher knowledge scores were associated with less belief in a mortality benefit from prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing (r=−.49, P<.001). Participants could be categorized as low, age-selective, and high users of routine PSA screening. High users had lower knowledge scores than age-selective or low users, and they believed much more in mortality benefits from PSA screening.

CONCLUSIONS: Based on its internal consistency and its correlations with measures of physicians’ net beliefs and self-reported practices, the knowledge scale developed in this study holds promise for measuring the effects of professional education on prostate cancer screening. The scale deserves further evaluation in broader populations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research, University of California Davis, Davis, CA, USA

    Douglas S. Bell MD, PhD, Ron D. Hays PhD & Jerilyn K. Higa MS

  2. Division of Emergency Medicine, Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, University of California Davis, Davis, CA, USA

    Jerome R. Hoffman MA, MD & Frank C. Day MD, MPH

  3. Office of Medical Education, University of California Davis, Davis, CA, USA

    Michael S. Wilkes MD, PhD

Authors
  1. Douglas S. Bell MD, PhD
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  2. Ron D. Hays PhD
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  3. Jerome R. Hoffman MA, MD
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  4. Frank C. Day MD, MPH
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  5. Jerilyn K. Higa MS
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  6. Michael S. Wilkes MD, PhD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Douglas S. Bell MD, PhD.

Additional information

The authors have no conflict of interest to declare for this article.

This study was supported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (cooperative agreement U58-CCU920367), and by the National Center for Research Resources (grant G12 RR 03026-13). Dr. Bell had additional support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Generalist Faculty Physician Scholars Program and Dr. Hays from the UCLA/DREW Project EXPORT, National Institutes of Health, National Center on Minority Health & Health Disparities, (P20-MD00148-01), and the UCLA Center for Health Improvement in Minority Elders/Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research.

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Bell, D.S., Hays, R.D., Hoffman, J.R. et al. A test of knowledge about prostate cancer screening. J Gen Intern Med 21, 310–314 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1525-1497.2006.00337.x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1525-1497.2006.00337.x

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