Are urban barbershops enrolled in The Prostate Net's Barbershop Initiative successfully reaching and educating minority patrons about prostate cancer?

The Prostate Net, a national patient education/advocacy organization, developed the Barbershop Initiative. Barbers collaborate with local medical centers as front-line prostate cancer educators in minority (primarily black) communities. The Knowledge Net augments the barbers' efforts in selected barbershops by adding multimedia computer workstations with centrally-developed video clips, text-based materials, PodCasts, and relevant web content. These workstations support and encourage voluntary, anonymous patron surveys. We designed a survey to assess how these barbershops influence men's knowledge and behavior concerning prostate cancer. In the first year of the survey's operation, beginning in February 2006, 515 men aged ≥ 30 completed surveys in Chicago, Hartford and Atlanta. Respondents' demographics differed from corresponding local populations. 74% of respondents reported receiving prostate cancer information in the barbershop. Younger respondents were more likely to receive information (85% of 30 39-year-olds, 69% of 40 59, 64% of 60+, p < 0.001 for trend), as were respondents who had not received prostate cancer information from a health care provider (81% compared to only 66% of those who had received information from a health care provider, p < .0001). 99% of those who learned anything about prostate cancer screening said they would share the information with others, such as family (72%) and friends (76%). This program is successfully educating some traditionally hard-to-reach, high-risk populations, with particular effectiveness among those less knowledgeable about prostate cancer. The present data support continuation of The Barbershop Initiative and suggest its expansion to other conditions where underserved urban minorities need to be better reached.