Knowledge, perception and uptake of prostate cancer screening: a cross sectional study at a level III hospital in Kenya

Abstract

Objective: The aim of the study was to assess the Knowledge, Perception and Uptake of Prostate Cancer Screening among men attending Mathare North Health Centre. Methods: This was a Descriptive cross-sectional facility based study. The study was conducted at Mathare Health Centre in Nairobi County in Kenya among men aged 30 years and above attending the facility outpatient department. Quantitative data was collected using a structured interview based questionnaire. Data was analysed by use of Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) version 22. Results: Eighty percent (80%) of the respondents were aware of prostate cancer existence with the mass media being the major source of the information. Knowledge on various domains was low as 87% of the respondents were not aware of the symptoms of prostate cancer, 52% did not know that the disease is preventable while 71% did not know the disease is curable. Sixty four percent (64%) of the respondents were not aware of existence of prostate cancer screening services, 63% of the respondents perceived themselves as not being at risk of developing the disease while 8.8% of the respondents perceived themselves as being susceptible to prostate cancer in the future. The respondents (62.2%) held fatalistic beliefs towards prostate cancer. Only 1.3% of the respondents had undergone screening which was done more than three years preceding the study. Conclusion: The level of awareness of prostate cancer was high while knowledge on the various domains was low. There was low perception of self-vulnerability and existence of fatalistic beliefs. Consistent with the low level of knowledge, low perception of self-vulnerability, the uptake of prostate cancer was extremely low. There is need to Scale up health education to the community regarding prostate cancer to enhance knowledge, eliminate negative beliefs and increase the uptake of screening.