Dear Editor,
Jamaica is best known for tourism, jerked meat and also reggae music. In spite of boasting all these exotic things, Jamaica also boasts the highest incidence of prostate cancer in the world.
Prostate cancer has the highest prevalence of any non-skin cancer in the human body around the world, irrespective of diet, occupation, lifestyle, and other factors. It is a significant health problem for middle-aged and elderly men. Studies have shown that Jamaican men have a higher incidence of prostate cancer — every three out of 1,000 men — when compared to black American men (around 2 out of 1,000 men).
Although the cause of prostate cancer is still in debate, the reason behind why Jamaican men have the highest death rate due to prostate cancer is still alarming.
Prostate cancer is a problem topic to discuss with Jamaican men, especially with the targeted age group of 40 years and older. If it is at all mentioned, it is quickly dismissed. The Jamaican male's reluctance to seek medical care can be explained through a cultural viewpoint. One of the reasons is due to males not seeing themselves as being susceptible to the disease, and also due to humiliation, as they fear it will emasculate them.
You will see males going to the hospital in a near-death experience. Dr Paul Bourne at the UWI once stated that the cultural aspect is one of the factors why Jamaican men do not visit hospitals regularly, and hence do not screen for prostate cancer. Jamaican men also view the rectal examination as not only embarrassing, but somehow think it homosexual in nature. Due to this fact, the cycle of reluctance continues.
Although men are urged, through the media, by various Jamaican urologists, physicians and also the Jamaica Cancer Society, these warnings go unheeded. The lack of discussion about screening for prostate cancer and the lack of culturally appropriate communication with health-care providers have caused distrust, created fear, and further developed a hatred for this test on a cultural and social standpoint among Jamaican men.
Notwithstanding the lack of an efficient screening programme for prostate cancer in Jamaica, the fear and hatred of the test, and also the method used for screening — the notorious rectal examination — are fuelling for the prostate cancer situation.
If non-invasive and less humiliating methods for prostate cancer testing are not developed and employed, along with proper education on this disease, more Jamaican men will continue to suffer and die from it.
A G Lewis
Manchester
Are homophobia and prostate cancer rise related?
-->
Jamaica is best known for tourism, jerked meat and also reggae music. In spite of boasting all these exotic things, Jamaica also boasts the highest incidence of prostate cancer in the world.
Prostate cancer has the highest prevalence of any non-skin cancer in the human body around the world, irrespective of diet, occupation, lifestyle, and other factors. It is a significant health problem for middle-aged and elderly men. Studies have shown that Jamaican men have a higher incidence of prostate cancer — every three out of 1,000 men — when compared to black American men (around 2 out of 1,000 men).
Although the cause of prostate cancer is still in debate, the reason behind why Jamaican men have the highest death rate due to prostate cancer is still alarming.
Prostate cancer is a problem topic to discuss with Jamaican men, especially with the targeted age group of 40 years and older. If it is at all mentioned, it is quickly dismissed. The Jamaican male's reluctance to seek medical care can be explained through a cultural viewpoint. One of the reasons is due to males not seeing themselves as being susceptible to the disease, and also due to humiliation, as they fear it will emasculate them.
You will see males going to the hospital in a near-death experience. Dr Paul Bourne at the UWI once stated that the cultural aspect is one of the factors why Jamaican men do not visit hospitals regularly, and hence do not screen for prostate cancer. Jamaican men also view the rectal examination as not only embarrassing, but somehow think it homosexual in nature. Due to this fact, the cycle of reluctance continues.
Although men are urged, through the media, by various Jamaican urologists, physicians and also the Jamaica Cancer Society, these warnings go unheeded. The lack of discussion about screening for prostate cancer and the lack of culturally appropriate communication with health-care providers have caused distrust, created fear, and further developed a hatred for this test on a cultural and social standpoint among Jamaican men.
Notwithstanding the lack of an efficient screening programme for prostate cancer in Jamaica, the fear and hatred of the test, and also the method used for screening — the notorious rectal examination — are fuelling for the prostate cancer situation.
If non-invasive and less humiliating methods for prostate cancer testing are not developed and employed, along with proper education on this disease, more Jamaican men will continue to suffer and die from it.
A G Lewis
Manchester
Are homophobia and prostate cancer rise related?
-->