Racial Disparities in Prostate Cancer Screening: The Role of Shared Decision Making

The 2018 U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendations endorsed shared decision making for men aged 55-69 years, encouraging consideration of patient race/ethnicity for prostate-specific antigen screening. This study aimed to assess whether a proxy shared decision-making variable modified the impact of race/ethnicity on the likelihood of prostate-specific antigen screening.

A cross-sectional analysis of men aged between 55 and 69 years, who responded to the prostate-specific antigen screening portions of the 2020 U.S.-based Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey, was performed between September and December 2022. Complex sample multivariable logistic regression models with an interaction term combining race and estimated shared decision making were used to test whether shared decision making modified the impact of race/ethnicity on screening.

Of a weighted sample of 26.8 million men eligible for prostate-specific antigen screening, 25.7% (6.9 million) reported for prostate-specific antigen screening. In adjusted analysis, estimated shared decision making was a significant predictor of prostate-specific antigen screening (AOR=2.65, 95% CI=2.36, 2.98, p<0.001). The interaction between race/ethnicity and estimated shared decision making on the receipt of prostate-specific antigen screening was significant (p_int=0.001). Among those who did not report estimated shared decision making, both non-Hispanic Black (OR=0.77, 95% CI=0.61, 0.97, p=0.026) and Hispanic (OR=0.51, 95% CI=0.39, 0.68, p<0.001) men were significantly less likely to undergo prostate-specific antigen screening than non-Hispanic White men. On the contrary, among respondents who reported estimated shared decision making, no race-based differences in prostate-specific antigen screening were found.

Although much disparities research focuses on race-based differences in prostate-specific antigen screening, research on strategies to mitigate these disparities is needed. Shared decision making might attenuate the impact of race/ethnic disparities on the likelihood of prostate-specific antigen screening.