Knowledge and attitudes of primary care physicians regarding prostate cancer screening.

Introduction: We report the results of a questionnaire administered to primary care physicians to determine their baseline knowledge of prostate cancer and their attitudes on prostate cancer screening.

Materials And Methods: A 27-item questionnaire designed to assess prostate cancer knowledge and screening attitudes was administered to primary care physicians in Duval and Alachua counties. Completed surveys were returned, entered into the master database and analyzed.

Results: Mean initial knowledge score was 66%. In multivariate regression analysis, there were no covariates independently associated with knowledge scores. In multivariate regression analysis, there were no covariates independently associated with attitude scores. Lastly, knowledge scores were not associated with attitude scores (p=0.85).

Conclusions: Our findings imply that physicians' knowledge is not an important predictor of their screening behavior. Thus, this study raises the possibility that factors other than educational programs must be assessed as a means to increase screening in specific communities.