Response to Knowledge Statement by Race and Treatment (N = 192)
| Knowledge Statement* | Overall (n = 192) | Race | Treatment | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| White (n = 102) | Black (n = 90) | P Value | AS/WW (n = 16) | Radiation (n = 53) | Surgery (n = 96) | P Value | ||
| There are several ways to treat early stage prostate cancer successfully. (True) | 89.6 | 92.2 | 86.7 | .18 | 93.8 | 92.5 | 89.6 | .71 |
| If men live long enough, most will have cancer cells in their prostate, but few will die of prostate cancer. (True) | 69.3 | 78.4 | 58.9 | .01 | 87.5 | 77.4 | 63.5 | .06 |
| Treatment for prostate cancer can have serious long-term side effects. (True) | 64.6 | 72.5 | 55.6 | .03 | 62.5 | 54.7 | 70.8 | .20 |
| In the early stage, doctors can't always tell how your prostate cancer will act. (True) | 62.5 | 67.6 | 56.0 | .22 | 81.3 | 54.7 | 67.7 | .19 |
| Most prostate cancers grow very slowly and rarely cause problems. A few grow quickly. (True) | 58.9 | 67.6 | 48.9 | .02 | 56.3 | 54.7 | 63.5 | .54 |
| Having surgery on a cancer increases the possibility that the cancer will spread to other parts of the body. (False) | 50.5 | 59.8 | 40.0 | .01 | 37.5 | 35.8 | 65.6 | <.01 |
| Surgery leads to more urinary incontinence side effects (leaking urine) than radiation. (True) | 47.9 | 44.1 | 52.2 | .19 | 31.3 | 52.8 | 52.1 | .24 |
| Surgery leads to more sexual side effects (inability to have erections) than radiation. (True) | 44.3 | 46.1 | 42.2 | .88 | 43.8 | 47.2 | 44.8 | .87 |
| Having radiation as the first treatment can make it difficult for doctors to perform surgery if the cancer came back later. (True) | 41.1 | 54.9 | 25.6 | <.01 | 25.0 | 34.0 | 53.1 | .02 |
| Radiation leads to more bowel problems (leaking stool or rectal bleeding) than surgery. (True) | 37.5 | 42.2 | 32.2 | .23 | 25.0 | 34.0 | 41.7 | .38 |
| The chance of being alive 10 years after treatment is the same for surgery as it is for radiation. (True) | 35.4 | 45.1 | 24.4 | <.01 | 31.3 | 52.8 | 29.2 | .01 |
Data are the percentages of correct responses, unless otherwise indicated. Bold values in table indicate the difference was “statistically significant”.
↵* True and false answers are based on our knowledge scale.
AS, active surveillance; WW, watchful waiting.