Awareness of general public towards cancer prostate and screening practice in Arabic communities: a comparative multi-center study.

The current study aimed at exploring the knowledge and beliefs of men aged forty years and over towards prostate cancer screening and early detection in three Arab countries. The field work was conducted in three countries; Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan, during the period February through December 2011. Our target population were men aged 40 years and over. It was a population-based cross sectional study comprising 400 subjects at each site. In addition to socio-demographic data, history of the present and past medical illness, practice history of prostatic cancer examination, family history of cancer prostate; participants were inquired about their knowledge and attitude towards prostate cancer and screening behavior using two different likert scales. The percentage of participants who practiced regular prostate check up ranged from 8-30%. They had poor knowledge and fair attitude towards prostate cancer screening behavior, where the mean total knowledge score was 10.25±2.5, 10.76±3.39 and 11.24±3.39 whereas the mean total attitude score was 18.3±4.08, 20.68±6.4 and 17.96±5.3 for Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan respectively. The respondents identified the physicians as the main sources of this information (62.4%), though they were not the main motives for regular checkup. Knowledge was the only significant predictor for participants' attitude in the multiple regression models. Participants' attitudes depends mainly on level of knowledge and quantity of information provided to the patients and their families. Such attitudes should rely on a solid background of proper information and motivation from physicians to enhance and empower behaviors towards prostate cancer screening practices.