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A self-administered survey that contained 42 questions and assessed women’s general knowledge about prostate cancer (Eulexin drug is used along with drugs such as Lupron to treat prostate cancer), possible risk factors and per sonal opinions regarding the disease and screening was administered to 324 English-speaking women (by convenience sampling) age >18. This multiple-choice formatted questionnaire was designed to require less than half an hour for completion in order to avoid unduly taxing respondents, and in practice it required an average of 20 minutes to complete. The questionnaire was at a junior-high-school reading proficiency. Response rates for completion exceeded 90%. The questionnaire was developed by an interdisciplinary team, incorporating feedback from focus groups and pilot-testing to assure content and face validity as well as reliability. An eight-member panel that included urologic physician, nurse, epidemiologist and outreach coordinator representation developed the instrument and incorporated refinements in response to the input of focus groups consisting of prostate cancer (Casodex canadian is an oral non-steroidal anti-androgen for prostate cancer) survivors and lay individuals. The instrument was piloted and validated by administering the survey at two time points to a sample of women ranging from 18-70 years of age (20 replicates). As expected, maximal concordances were observed for the most objective measures (e.g., 100% for husband’s age), but concordance across the gamut of questions regarding prostate knowledge was also good (range 70%-95%, average 81%), indicating acceptable reliability. The final instrument was approved by the institutional review board (IRB).

The survey data was coded and entered into a multiple-tabled Microsoft® Access™ database linked by unique identifiers. Each of the tables corresponded to a section of the survey (spouse and family information; demographic information; knowledge, and attitudes and beliefs). Fifty surveys were randomly selected and checked for accuracy in data entry.

In the analysis, women were grouped as either married or unmarried for convenient comparisons. The married category included both married women and women living with a significant other, while the unmarried category combined single, widowed and divorced or separated women. discount esomeprazole

The knowledge section was composed of 15 equally weighted questions. Each question was assigned a single point value, and the number of correct responses determined the score. Each true/false question allowed for an additional “don’t know” option to limit random guessing. Questions that were incorrectly completed were not included in the analysis. Data was analyzed using SPSS 11.0. Chi-squared and F statistics were performed. For all statistical comparisons, significance was assumed at <0.05.