RESULTS OF PROSTATE STUDY AMONG BLACK MEN

They're more fatalistic about the disease & show less religious coping.



A survey of African-American and Nigerian men shows that Black American males are more fatalistic in their cancer beliefs and are less likely to employ religious coping skills when fighting cancer.

The first of its kind study was conducted by researchers based at predominantly Black Florida A&M University and the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center.

"Men who have fatalistic beliefs about prostate cancer … may be less likely to take the steps necessary to prevent cancer or undergo cancer screening to detect cancer," says lead researcher Professor Folakemi Odedina of FAMU's Economic, Social & Administrative Pharmacy program. She added, "These are cultural beliefs that compound existing health disparities for African American men."

Odedina's team found that African America men are 60 percent less likely than West African men to possess the religious coping skills which might be able to help sustain them during cancer treatment.

Currently, African American men tend to suffer disproportionately from aggressive prostate cancer which is often detected at a much later stage in its development and in thus more difficult to treat.

Among the study's findings was Black American men tend to know more about prostate cancer than their African counterparts but cultural and religious beliefs cause them to take less preventive action.

The findings were reported last week in Atlanta at the American Association for Cancer Research Conference on "The Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved."