Barbershops for Prostate Cancer Education
Posted on March 2nd, 2015 in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Barbershops for Prostate Cancer Education
Investigators from the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health at Georgia Southern University led by Dr. John Luque conducted a collaborative feasibility study titled “Barbers Against Prostate Cancer” funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities to the Center of Excellence on Health Disparities in Rural Populations. The project engages barbershops for prostate cancer education in two rural African-American communities. The barbershop is a promising setting where African-American men might receive information and education about prostate cancer. In this study, the researchers assessed the feasibility of engaging rural barbershops as venues for barbers to deliver a prostate cancer education intervention to increase informed decision-making for prostate cancer screening among their customers. Based on the multiple interactions with the barbers, there was high receptivity to the topic and consensus about the importance of addressing prostate cancer in their communities. Rural barbershops represent feasible venues for delivering a prostate cancer education intervention. The findings were published online in the Journal of Cancer Education in an article entitled, “Feasibility Study of Engaging Barbershops for Prostate Cancer Education in Rural African-American Communities.”