Focus Groups in the Design of Prostate Cancer Screening Information for Hispanic Farmworkers and African American Men

Purpose/Objectives: To gain a better understanding of men's everyday concerns as part of formative research for creating relevant prostate cancer screening education; to describe methods and processes used to conduct community-based focus groups.

Setting: Community-based settings in catchment areas surrounding Tampa, FL.

Sample: 8 community-based focus groups: a total of 71 Hispanic farmworkers and African American men.

Methods: Focus group discussions were tape-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed for identification of emergent themes.

Main Research Variables: General life and health priorities, prostate cancer knowledge, screening attitudes, cancer beliefs, and learning preferences.

Findings: Major themes among African American men were importance of work, family, and faith. Major themes among Hispanic farmworkers were importance of family, employment, education of children, and faith. A common issue that surfaced among most men was that a cancer diagnosis was considered to be a death sentence. Preferred learning methods included use of cancer survivors as spokespeople, interactive group education, and the provision of easy-to-understand information. Issues of trust, respect, and community involvement were key to the successful conduct of focus groups among ethnically diverse groups.

Conclusions: Study findings have important implications for the content of information developed for prostate cancer education materials and media.

Implications for Nursing: Insights gained from focus group methodology can help nurses and other healthcare professionals design and develop appropriate prostate cancer education tools for use in community-based prostate cancer screening programs.