Obese men more likely to undergo PSA screening

Obese men are more likely than are normal-weight men to have a prostate cancer screening, and associations among advanced stage, worse outcomes, and obesity may not be explained by disparities in screening, according to a study published in the Journal of Urology (2007; 177:493-8).

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, used the 2002 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System to study prostate cancer screening in a representative sample of 57,827 men age 40 years or older. Primary outcomes were the proportion of men ever screened and the proportion screened in the last year for prostate cancer.

Obese men were more likely than normal weight men to have had a PSA test (62.1% vs. 56.1%, p<.001) and to have had a PSA test within the last year (44.2% vs. 38.2%, p<.001). After controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, obese men remained more likely than were normal-weight men ever to have had a PSA test (OR 1.46, 95% CI: 1.33–1.61) and to have had a PSA test in the last year (OR 1.42, 95% CI: 1.30–1.55).

Respondents reporting an ongoing relationship with a physician (OR 2.88, 95% CI: 2.57–3.22) and African-American non-Hispanic men versus white men (OR 1.58, 95% CI: 1.38–1.81) were also more likely to have had a PSA test in the last year, according to the researchers, led by Judd W. Moul, MD.