CHAPEL HILL, N.C., March 13 (UPI) -- African-American men are more than twice as likely as white men to get prostate-cancer treatment at public clinics or emergency rooms, a U.S. study found.
Senior author Dr. Paul A. Godley at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine says the decreasing rates of prostate cancer among African-American men may require improving access to primary-care physicians, rather than increased education about the disease.
The study, published in the journal Cancer, also found African-American men were slightly less likely than white men to say they trusted their physicians.
This weaker trust seemed to be associated with a lack of regular sources of healthcare, according to Godley.
"This wasn't coming from some historical distrust from previous abuses, but from people's own experience with the healthcare system," Godley said. "If you don't have a doctor and have to repeat your whole history to an emergency room physician every time you have a medical encounter, then it's harder to develop trust in physicians."
