Knowledge, attitudes and practices of men concerning prostate cancer in Muldersdrift, South Africa
Date
2018
Authors
Baaitse, Bontshwanetse
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Abstract
Background: Prostate cancer is one of the top diseases that are killing men world over and is the second common cancer that affects men. According to the 2012 Globocan statistics, approximately 1.1 million males were found to have prostate cancer globally, which was found to be at 15% compared to other cancers seen in males. The incidence and mortality rate of the disease in the Southern African Development Community region is 40.5 per 100 000 and 22.5 per 100 000 of the population per year, respectively. However, the National Cancer Registry of South Africa (2012) has indicated that in South Africa, 31.36 per 100,000 men were found to have this cancer.
Aim: The study aimed to describe the knowledge, attitudes and practices of men living in Muldersdrift, South Africa, concerning prostate cancer.
Method: The setting was Ward 23, commonly known as Video, a resource poor area, in Muldersdrift. A door-to-door survey was conducted. The convenience sampling method was used on a sample size of n=183. Data were collected by means of structured interviews and a questionnaire served as the data collection instrument. The data were analysed by means of descriptive statistics and the Fisher’s Exact Test was used to calculate statistical significant differences between the variables.
Results: The sample (n=183) about half were above the age of 70 years (48.1%; n=88), mean 52.4, SD ±9.5 and median 50.Over a third of respondents were from the Tswana cultural group (36.6%; n=67) and the highest percentage never went to school (30.1%; n=55).The majority of respondents (90.2%; n=165) had never heard of prostate cancer and only 9.8% (n=18) had ever heard of the disease. When calculating the overall knowledge about prostate cancer, all respondents (n=183) scored between 0 and 49% (equates with low).The majority of the respondents (72.0%; n=132) had a positive attitude towards prostate cancer. Out of the 10 answers considered to be positive practices, approximately two-thirds of the respondents (60.7%; n=111) responded positively to two questions only.
Conclusion: The study provided evidence that the men living in the study setting had limited knowledge of prostate cancer. However, they presented with a positive attitude regarding prostate cancer, and high percentages were ready to perform prostate cancer screening and to learn about the disease.
Description
A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the Master’s degree
Johannesburg, 2018.
Keywords
Knowledge, attitudes and practices