Attitudes and knowledge of primary care physicians regarding prostate cancer screening

Recently, several prospective randomized prostate cancer screening studies have been reported. We report the results of a questionnaire administered to primary care physicians (PCPs) to determine their attitudes on prostate cancer screening and compared these results to those obtained when the same questionnaire was administered to a different large cohort of PCPs in 2006 prior to the reporting of these randomized studies. A 24-item questionnaire designed to assess prostate cancer knowledge and screening attitudes was administered to PCPs within central Florida and those PCPs attending a state conference. Completed surveys were returned and analyzed. All reported p values were two-sided, and those p values less than 0.05 were considered to be statistically significant. Seven hundred and eighty PCPs received the study questionnaire, and 168 (22 %) PCPs returned the completed questionnaire. Sixty-eight percent of responders stated that they recommend prostate cancer screening to >75 % of their patients over the age of 50 years, up from 47 % in 2006 (p < 0.001). Seventy-four percent of responders felt screening was effective. The overall mean score of the knowledge survey was 66 %, which was similar to the cohort from 2006. Knowledge scores were not associated with screening attitudes and behaviors. On multivariate analysis, practice setting and percentage of Medicaid patients in the practice were associated with attitude scores. Our current findings imply that despite the recent landmark studies published on prostate cancer screening, PCPs' screening attitudes have changed minimally over the past 5 years.