Development of a tool to assess knowledge, awareness and perception of prostate cancer amongst women in Ghana.

Abstract

Background and Objectives: The incidence of prostate cancer in developing countries is less than 30%, yet it has the disease's highest mortality. To address the mortality, strategies to increase awareness of the disease have been proposed, including the recommendation for women's active involvement. This is because women act as family health advocates, advisors, managers, and promoters. Therefore, it is essential to gather evidence on women's awareness of prostate cancer. Also, in Ghana, there is a lack of evidence about women's awareness of prostate cancer. However, there are about 50 indigenous Ghanaian languages, with Akan been the most spoken language. Providing a valid and reliable Akan version of a modified tool for assessing Ghanaian women's awareness of prostate cancer is vital. The study aim was (1) to conduct a mixed-methods systematic review on the awareness of women regarding prostate cancer, and (2) to translate, validate, and conduct a reliability assessment of a questionnaire for studying the knowledge, awareness, and perception of prostate cancer in Ghanaian market women. Methods: The Joanna Briggs Institute manual was employed in the development of a mixed methods systematic review protocol. The protocol was then used to conduct a systematic review of the awareness of women on prostate cancer. MEDLINE (EBSCOhost), CINAHL (EBSCOhost), PsycINFO (EBSCOhost), Web of Science, and EMBASE (Ovid) were searched based on the inclusion criteria for studies conducted between 1999 to 2019. Also, questionnaires on prostate cancer awareness were adopted from other studies, modified, and translated to Akan using the forward and backward translation protocols. The Akan questionnaire was certified, validated, and a reliability assessment was performed by measuring average scores, content validity index, and Cronbach’s alpha, respectively. Study participants for the validation and reliability study were recruited using a simple random sampling technique. Results: A total of 2201 articles were identified from the search, of which seven were included in the review. The selected studies' results indicated moderate knowledge on signs and symptoms; and causes and risk factors of prostate cancer. An inadequate level of knowledge about prostate cancer screening tools was recorded among women. An Akan questionnaire was adequately developed and certified. The average scores for all parameters employed in the face validation were greater than 4. The content validity index was within the range of 0.90 - 0.99 whilst Cronbach’s alpha within the range of 0.7808 - 0.9209. Conclusion: The selected studies indicated moderate awareness about prostate cancer among women. The selected studies for the review were few; hence this hinders the generalizability and transferability of the results. More studies should be conducted on prostate cancer awareness among women to promote their role in disease prevention. The Akan questionnaire for assessing women's awareness of prostate cancer was adequate, reliable, and valid for the Ghanaian or Akan speaking people.