Can Women Facilitate Men's Prostate Cancer Screening Informed Decision-Making? The M-PACT Trial

The M-PACT study compared an all-male with a mixed-sex intervention to increase informed decision-making for prostate cancer screening among African-American men in church settings. We recruited 262 men in 18 churches randomized to the two intervention approaches. Trained and certified lay peer community health advisors in each church led a series of four men's health workshops on informed decision-making for prostate cancer screening. African-American male workshop participants completed baseline, post-workshop, and 12-month follow-up surveys. Contrary to our expectations, including women in the workshops did not result in increased intervention efficacy for the informed decision-making outcomes as both groups showed significant improvement over time in several study outcomes including stage of decision-making for prostate cancer screening, preference for role in decision-making, prostate cancer knowledge, and self-reports of prostate specific antigen testing. Finally, men who attended multiple workshops had better informed decision-making outcomes on several indicators. The current findings suggest mixed results from including women in this men's health educational intervention. Future work should consider optimal ways of providing family support for African-American men's health promotion.