Objective: To examine African-American prostate cancer (PCa) survivors' involvement in treatment decision-making (TDM), and examine the association between TDM and quality of life (QOL), using secondary data.
Methods: African-American PCa survivors (181) were recruited from the North Carolina Central Cancer Registry. Participants completed a cross-sectional survey that asked about their chosen cancer treatment, TDM factors, and PCa-specific QOL (using the Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite--EPIC). Multivariate analysis of covariance was conducted to determine the association between TDM and QOL, controlling for confounders.
Results: Most men reported being active (44.2%) or collaborative (38.1%) in TDM, while 14.4% preferred a passive role. Adjusting for marital status, education and treatment, passive patients reported somewhat better QOL compared to active patients in the following QOL domains: urinary summary (p=0.04), urinary function (p=0.01), and urinary incontinence (p=0.03).
Conclusion: Most African-American PCa survivors preferred to be, and were, actively or collaboratively involved in TDM. However, those who preferred a passive role reported better PCa-specific QOL for the urinary domain compared to others.
Practice implications: It is important to assess patients' TDM preference. Patients' QOL may differ by their TDM role, such that active patients may be more bothered by treatment side effects than other patients.
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