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Testicular self-examination in young adult men
1University of Akron, 209 Carroll Street, Akron, OH 44325-3701, USA. cwynd@uakron.edu
Purpose:
To describe patterns of testicular self-examination (TSE) in a sample of young adult men and to identify factors distinguishing between men who do and do not practice TSE.
Design:
A comparative descriptive design with a convenience sample of 191 adult men aged 18-35 years, recruited from a large industrial complex in the U.S. Midwest. Data were collected during several occupational health fairs held from 1999-2001.
Methods:
A self-report, 75-item health risk appraisal (HRA) was administered to identify health-related lifestyle habits. Men who did and did not perform TSE regularly were compared using Mann-Whitney U statistics for discrete variables and t tests for continuous data. Discriminant function analysis was used to identify factors allowing prediction of frequent or infrequent TSE performance.
Findings:
Sixty-four percent of 191 participants reported rarely or never performing TSE, and 36% practiced TSE monthly or every few months. Men who infrequently performed TSE were more often African American or Hispanic and had less than a college education. Other significant factors associated with infrequent TSE practice included less satisfaction with current job assignment; less satisfaction with life in general; greater worries interfering with daily life; more serious family problems in dealing with spouse, children, or parents; and reduced availability of people to turn to for support.
Conclusions:
Demographic and socioeconomic variables were related to TSE knowledge and performance. Further investigation is required to determine why men, especially ethnic minority men, are not performing this important cancer-screening activity.