Self-report of prostatitis and its risk factors in a random sample of middle-aged men.

Objectives: To determine the risk factors for the self-reported history of prostatitis and to determine whether a self-reported history of prostatitis is related to the diagnosis of prostate cancer.

Methods: Random digit dialing was used to select a group of controls aged 40 to 64 years without prostate cancer matched by age with a group of patients with prostate cancer in a study on the epidemiology of prostate cancer. Controls were divided into those who reported a diagnosis of prostatitis (cases) and those who denied ever having had prostatitis (controls). We adjusted for the time from a prostatitis diagnosis to the in-person interview. We also compared the number of men with a prostatitis diagnosis to the number of men diagnosed and not diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Results: Of the 645 control men without a history of prostate cancer, 58 (9.0%) reported a diagnosis of prostatitis. The men with prostatitis had a mean age of 39.5 years at diagnosis. The urinary symptoms among prostatitis cases and controls was similar. Prostatitis cases more frequently reported urinary (P < or =0.05) or urethral infections (P < or =0.01) before diagnosis. Men with prostatitis were more likely to have procedures aimed at diagnosing both prostatic and other diseases. Men with prostate cancer reported a diagnosis of prostatitis more often than the noncancer controls (13.6% versus 9.0%). After controlling for the number of prostate-specific antigen tests this difference disappeared.

Conclusions: Nine percent of a randomly selected group of middle-aged men reported they had been diagnosed with prostatitis. The prevalence of a prostatitis diagnosis is similar in men with and without prostate cancer.