175714 Re-Establishing Masculine Identity: Latino and African American Men with Prostate Cancer Treatment-Related Erectile Dysfunction and Incontinence

Wednesday, October 29, 2008: 8:30 AM

Sally L. Maliski, RN, PhD , Nursing, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
     
Background: Prostate cancer is the most common noncutaneous cancer in men African American/Black men still bear a disproportionate burden, while Latino men, too, experience more negative outcomes from prostate cancer Discussing incontinence and ED, common treatment symptoms, is necessary in order to assist men with prostate cancer in becoming informed participants in making treatment decisions and managing and coping with these symptoms. How best to do this for low-income African American/Black and Latino men based on their values is not clear. Additionally, incontinence and ED touch at the core of masculine identity for many men. The purpose of this study was to describe the meaning of prostate cancer treatment-related incontinence and ED for low-income African American/Black and Latino men. Reported here are the results from which a model of masculine identity transition was developed as men described living with their treatment-related incontinence and ED.

Methods: A qualitative grounded theory approach was used with interview data from 60 Latino and 35 African American men. All were uninsured and low income. All interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim in the language in which they were conducted. Interviewers were language and ethnicity concordant with participants. Spanish transcripts underwent a rigorous translation process to produce English transcripts. Analysis proceeded from line-by-line coding to axial coding to model development.

Results: Analysis of these data revealed a transitional process following treatment for prostate cancer that enabled men to reprioritize factors deemed important to being a man such that they could recover their sense of masculinity. This process was seen across both African American/Black/Black and Latino men.

Conclusions: Understanding of this process provides insight into how men are able to reframe their symptoms such that identity is re-established. This is foundational to intervention development based on a reframing process for men experiencing side effects from treatment for prostate cancer

Learning Objectives:
1. Describe early influences on masculine identity development. 2. Analyze the effects of masculine identity disrupters. 3. Discuss the process through which masculine identity can be re-established after prostate cancer treatment.

Keywords: Quality of Life, Cancer

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: This is my original research.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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