Men's Prostate Awareness Church Training

Prostate Cancer Education in African American Churches

The objective of the Prostate Cancer Education in African American Churches project is to develop and evaluate a spiritually-based educational intervention for Informed Decision Making (IDM) for prostate cancer screening to be delivered to African American men in church settings.

The specific aims of the project are to 1) develop, and 2) test the efficacy of a spiritually-based cancer communication intervention to increase IDM for prostate cancer screening among African American men in church settings, and including women as supportive "health partners".

A randomized controlled trial is utilized, in which churches will be randomized to: 1) male-only educational groups; and 2) co-educational groups where women supportive "health partners" are invited to attend with the men in dyads, and then break out into men's and women's discussion groups. These two approaches are compared through use of cluster randomized design to determine whether the addition of the women health partner increases the intervention efficacy in the study outcome of informed decision making for prostate cancer screening.

Inclusion Criteria:

Male Study Participants

• African American Men church attending men

• 40-69 years of age Advisory Panel

  • Knowledgeable about the community where the intervention is implemented, adults ages 21+, review materials and provide input for intervention development and program implementation Pastors
  • Willing to conduct the intervention at church
  • Support the program
  • Designate two individuals to serve as community health advisors
  • Identify a ministry in the church which will champion the project Community Health Advisors
  • attend a 6 hour training and 1 hour certification
  • assist in recruitment of study participants
  • recruit up to 24 men
  • recruit up to 24 females to attend sessions with men in 10 Health Partner Churches
  • prepare and conduct the 4 part workshop series
  • serve as liaisons between the project and study team Workshop Participants
  • self-identified, African American men (40-69), Health Partners --over 18 years of age, able to complete self-administered paper-and-pencil surveys

Exclusion Criteria:

• Workshop participants with a history of prostate cancer, do not meet the age criteria