Abstract

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in middle aged men in Nigeria; yet prostate cancer screening is not a common practice, thus resulting in late presentation of patients to the hospital when little or no cure can be administered. This study seeks to assess the awareness and practice of prostate cancer screening among middle age men in a rural community in Kwara State. A community based cross-sectional study was conducted among 158 respondents using purposive sampling technique. The instrument for data collection was a self- structured questionnaire and the response rate was 98.1%. Data collected were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics with level of significant set at 5% (0.05). The data were presented in tables and chart. The result revealed that the majority of the respondents were between age 55-65years. Only 34.8% of respondents were aware about prostate cancer (PCa) screening and their main source of information was mass media. All the respondents (100%) have never gone for prostate cancer screening before and the major reasons identified for poor practice of PCa screening were lack of awareness (45.8%), unavailability of the screening tests(28.4%) misconceptions about screening test 24 (15.5%) and cost of screening 13 (8.4%). However, majority (85.2%) of respondents were willing to go for prostate cancer screening if recommended by health care professionals. The study concluded that respondents demonstrated poor awareness and practice of PCa screening, despite willingness to screen if recommended. Therefore, there is need for healthcare providers to sensitize the public and provide counselling for high-risk individuals on PCa screening in order for them to make informed choices and improve uptake of the screening; and this will in turn help curb the burden of prostate cancer in this population