Prostate Cancer: Investigation of Risk Factors Affecting African-American and White Men in the United States

Problem: Prostate cancer is a common cancer diagnosis among men in the United States. The American Cancer Society states that one out of every six men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime. In 2010, an estimated 217,730 new cases of prostate cancer was diagnosed. In 2010, 32,050 men were expected to die from prostate cancer in the United States. Although the incidence and mortality rates for prostate cancer have deceased over the decade, African-Americans men still remain at an increased risk for prostate cancer. In 2002-2006, the overall age-adjusted incidence rate for White men was 146.3 per 100,000 and 231.9 per 100,000 for African-Americans. During the same time period, the mortality rate for White men was 23.6 per 100,000 and 56.3 per 100,000 for African-American men. The existence of racial disparities correlates to the high rates of prostate cancer in African-American men.

Objective of Study: The objective of this study was to investigate risk factors that affect prostate cancer of African-American men. Findings to be discussed are risk factors by geographical states in the U.S. associated with state cigarette consumption, state alcohol consumption, state educational attainment, state unemployment rate, and state poverty rate.

Method: Data was collected from the U.S. census Bureau and the Center for Disease Control in years 2000-2006 of different states in the U.S. and analyzed using the partial least squares (PLS) regression model. Implication of the results for public health decision makers and future research will be discussed.