Mostafa A. Arafa, Danny M Rabah, Nessrine Ahmed El-Nimr
Primary care providers play a major role in promoti ng prostate cancer screening practices among their patients. However, there remain many barriers to ca ncer screening and still a large number of individuals are not receiving appropriately timed s creening. The work was carried out to Study the attitude of primary care physicians towards cancer prostate counseling and screening and its determinants. A cross sectional study was conducted during the period May through October 2009, In Riyadh. A self administered questionnaire was sent to Primary care physicians in the main University hospital, Army hospitals and Ministry of health hos pitals. It includes data pertinent to their knowled ge, attitude and perceived barriers towards cancer pros tate, in addition to socio-economic data. A significant percentage of the study participants re ported limited knowledge (45.7%), despite their fai r attitude towards prostate counseling, only half of the respondents (54.7%) were practicing counseling and screening of prostate cancer. Main prominent ba rriers were Lack of knowledge and skills. Most significant determinants of physicians’ attitudes w ere knowledge and physicians’ age. Physicians’ attitude towards cancer prostate counseling and scr eening should be enhanced through multiple session to increase their knowledge to cover up def icits in their knowledge gaps, and to overcome perceived barriers towards screening.
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