Racial Differences In Trust And Regular Source Of Patient Care And The Implications For Prostate Cancer Screening Use

Main Category: Prostate / Prostate Cancer
Also Included In: Urology / Nephrology;  Cancer / Oncology
Article Date: 26 Oct 2009 - 1:00 PDT

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UroToday.com - The goal of our study, published in the journal Cancer, was to gain a deeper understanding of the role of racial disparities in prostate cancer outcomes.

We found that Caucasian (white) men more often tended to be seen regularly by the same physician, which appears to be associated with greater trust in their doctors and in physicians in general. They were also more likely than their African-American counterparts to get regular prostate cancer screenings and to receive all their medical care at a physician's office. These findings suggest that differences in screening result from inconsistent or poorer quality interaction between an African-American man and the American health care system. If the interaction is poor, the care giver may not 'get around' to discussing or offering preventive health care, such as prostate cancer screening.

This evidence leads us to think that encouraging African-Americans to establish an ongoing relationship with a regular care provider may encourage more appropriate use of prostate cancer screening and thus reduce racial disparities in prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment which, by extension, may reduce the racial disparity in prostate cancer deaths of African-American men.

Written by William Carpenter, IV, PhD and James Mohler, MD as part of Beyond the Abstract on UroToday.com

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