Black Men’s Knowledge of Prostate Cancer and Screening and Vitamin D Screening and Supplementation

Given a global online sample of Black men (n=194) who responded to a social media campaign and completed the study, the convenience sample of Black males (N=194) was mostly married (N=147, 75.85%), had a mean age of 49.53 years (min 40, max 76, SD=8.73), and was well educated; 24.7% (n=48) had an Associate Degree, 20.6% (n=40) had a Bachelor’s, 18% (n=35) had a Master’s, and 5.2% (n=10) had a Doctorate. The mean annual income was 4.21 for category 4 of $40,000-$49,999 (min 1, max 9, SD=1.64). Most of the participants were employed (n=188, 96.9%) and born in the United States (n=152, 78.4%). As a reflection of a global sample, if not a sample of men born in Ghana (77.3%, n=194) who were now dispersed across the globe, over two-thirds (77.3%) were born in Ghana while 78.4% (n=152) were currently living in the United States; 15.5% (n=30) were currently living in Ghana, followed by 5.1 (n=10) currently living in other countries. Key findings showed that, as a brief intervention of taking the PC-S-KT-39, as per results of four paired t-tests (Bonferroni Adjustment Significance, .05/4, p=.013), this was associated with a significant increase from pre-knowledge test to post-knowledge test (p<.000; Bonferroni Adjustment Significance, .05/4, p=.013) for (a) knowledge of prostate cancer and screening (t=-8.475, df=193, p=.000); (b) self-efficacy for talking to doctor about prostate cancer and screening (t=-9.098, df=193, p=.000); (c) knowledge of Vitamin D screening and supplementation (t=-9.748, df=193, p=.000); and (d) self-efficacy for talking about Vitamin D screening and supplementation (t=-9.384, df=193, p=.000). The study demonstrated how there is great value in contemporary times in using an online social media campaign, posting and distributing flyers in community venues (barber shops, churches), snowballing, and using smart phones to conduct global online research. Given these findings, wide dissemination via the Internet of a link to the new Prostate Cancer and Screening Knowledge Test (PC-S-KT-39) is justified. If men such as those in this study disseminate the link, the impact may be global indeed.