Clinical profile, quality of care, and recurrence in arab-american and caucasians prostate cancer patients in Michigan

Ahmad H. Moussawi, May Yassine, Subhojit Dey, Amr S. Soliman

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men in the United States with striking differences in incidence and mortality among ethnic groups. Michigan has one of the largest concentrations of Arab Americans (AAs) in the U.S. and little is known about this ethnic minority with respect to prostate cancer. This study investigated differences in clinical profile, quality of care, and recurrence among prostate cancer survivors comparing AAs and Caucasian Americans (CAs). Participants in this study included 2499 prostate cancer survivors from the Michigan Cancer Registry from 1985 to 2004. Participants completed surveys regarding health-seeking behavior, post-treatment symptoms, quality of care and recurrence. Ethnicity was self-reported and AAs and CAs were compared with respect to clinical profile, quality of care, and recurrence. There were 52 AAs and 1886 CAs patients with AAs being younger (x̄ age 68.3 ± SD 21.4 years, x̄ age 72.3 ± SD 14.1 years, for AAs and CAs, respectively) (P = 0.05). AAs had lower socioeconomic standard than CAs (34 vs. 10.6 %, <$20,000 yearly income/year; for AAs vs. CAs, respectively) (P < 0.0001). AAs reported poorer health than AAs (7.7 vs. 3.0 % for AAs vs. CAs, respectively) (P < 0.0001). AAs were more likely to visit specialists for prostate follow-up (44.5 vs. 19.7 % visited a specialist, for AAs vs. CAs respectively) (P < 0.0001) and received supplementary healthcare workers (13 % of AAs vs. 3.1 % CAs) (P = 0.032). In addition, AAs reported higher occurrence of urinary incontinence compared to CAs (67.4 vs. 60.4 %, for AAs vs. CAs, respectively) (P = 0.001). Ethnic background was not a predictor of recurrence [(Odds ratio (OR) = 1.1 (95 % confidence intervals CI = 0.40, 2.9)] (P = 0.873) even after adjusting for age, PSA levels within the last 2 years, metastasis and hormonal therapy. While AAs prostate cancer patients were different from CAs in age, income, seeking medical care, and health reporting, ethnic background was not a predictor of recurrence. Future studies of the impact of socioeconomic, demographic and cultural factors, and health care seeking behavior on long-term survival of prostate cancer in AAs and other ethnic minorities are warranted.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)803-809
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Immigrant and Minority Health
Volume15
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2013

Keywords

  • Arab-Americans
  • Ethnic minorities
  • Prostate cancer
  • Quality of care
  • Survivorship
  • Treatment

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Epidemiology
  • Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

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