prostate-report.org

Low literacy levels associated to limited comprehension of prostate cancer terms

A recent study reviewed patient education materials and prostate-specific quality-of-life instruments to identify technical terms describing sexual, urinary, and bowel function. 

The team has reported on the very low level of understanding of prostate cancer-related terms among an underserved group of men with low literacy levels. Researchers concluded that limited comprehension of prostate cancer terms and low literacy create barriers to obtaining informed consent for treatment and to measuring prostate cancer outcomes accurately in our study population. In addition, the level of prostate cancer knowledge was poor. These results highlight the need for prostate cancer education efforts and outcomes measurements that consider literacy and use nonmedical language.

As a conclusion of the study, better tools are need to talk about prostate cancer with people who have low literacy skills.