Self-efficacy and importance of participation reasons as predictors for prostate cancer screening intention in African American men.

African American men have higher lifetime risk of developing prostate cancer (PCa), and face more health burdens from this disease due in part to limited participation in cancer screening. Therefore, it is important to study psychosocial factors associated with screening intention in African American men. Guided by social cognitive theory, the current study aims to examine the role of self-efficacy and importance of participation reasons as predictors of PCa screening intention in African American men. This is a primary analysis using data collected from African American men in northeast Ohio and the Southeastern United States. PCa screening intention and self-efficacy were measured by single-item questions. Importance of participation reasons was measured in four domains: psychological, convenience, awareness, and medical. Hierarchical binary logistic regression was used to predict PCa screening intention in African American men. The sample size was 174. The average age was 46.52. Adding self-efficacy and reasons for participation significantly improved prediction for PCa screening intention in African American men (Δ = 55.28,  < .001). The final model had  = 69.63 ( < .001). Higher self-efficacy (OR = 2.56,  < .05), more perceived importance of psychological reasons (OR = 2.42,  < .001) and medical reasons (OR = 1.10,  < .05) were significant predictors. Also, the perceived chance of developing PCa predicted higher odds of PCa screening intention. Enhancing self-efficacy might be an important intervention focus for African American men to improve PCa screening intention. In addition, the findings suggest that African American men intend to have PCa screening because they experience worries or physical symptoms, and unlikely because it is convenient to get screening or recommended by family members and friends. Thus, intervention efforts could focus on enhancing PCa knowledge and informed decision-making about PCa screening among African American men.