Barriers to prostate cancer screening

The revised prostate cancer screening guidelines of the American Cancer Soc iety recommend that men be informed of the risks associated with prostate c ancer screening. However, there are no published studies on men's fear of i mpotence and its impact on prostate cancer screening. In addition, little i s known about barriers to prostate cancer screening when the two main barri ers of cost and lack of knowledge are eliminated. This study reports the as sociation between barriers and free prostate cancer screening after a prost ate cancer education program. All men were called 1 month after a prostate cancer education program and asked: "What would (or did) make it hard for y ou to get your prostate checkup done?" A total postbarrier score was create d to measure how many barriers each man indicated. The following barriers w ere significant in predicting participation in prostate cancer screening: " put if off," "doctor hours not convenient," "didn't know kind of doctor," " didn't know where to go," and "refuse to go." Fear of impotence was not a s ignificant barrier. Suggestions for reducing barriers to prostate cancer sc reening are given.