A comparison of a spiritually based and non-spiritually based educational intervention for informed decision making for prostate cancer screening among church-attending African-American men.

INTRODUCTION: Health communication interventions have been modestly effective for increasing informed decision making for prostate cancer screening among African-American men; however, knowledge and informed decision making is still questionable even with screening. Church-based programs may be more effective if they are spiritually based in nature. OBJECTIVE: The aims of the present study were to implement and provide an initial evaluation of a spiritually based prostate cancer screening informed decision making intervention for African-American men who attend church, and determine its efficacy for increasing informed decision making. DESIGN AND METHOD: Churches were randomized to receive either the spiritually based or the non-spiritual intervention. Trained community health advisors, who were African-American male church members, led an educational session and distributed educational print materials. Participants completed baseline and immediate follow-up surveys to assess the intervention impact on study outcomes. RESULTS: The spiritually based intervention appeared to be more effective in areas such as knowledge, and men read more of their materials in the spiritually based group than in the non-spiritual group. CONCLUSIONS: Further examination of the efficacy of the spiritually based approach to health communication is warranted.