A systematic review of interventions promoting testicular self-examination (TSE) among at-risk males

Most males are uninformed on the subject of testicular cancer and the increased risks posed to the 15-40 year old population.  There is a general lack of awareness concerning screening procedures to assist testicular cancer prevention measures, namely TSE.  Further, there is even less information on the efficacy of interventions aimed at promoting testicular self-examination.  Most interventions assess testicular cancer knowledge, awareness, intention to change preventative behaviors, and/or execution efficacy, not specific interventions that measure actual TSE behaviors. A systematic review was conducted to assess the evidence concerning TSE promotion in the field.

Our findings suggest that well-designed outcome interventions can promote testicular self-examination among at-risk male populations.  Despite the lack of knowledge and awareness in regards to TSE/testicular cancer, participating males seem impressionable to promotion messages about TSE either from a unimodal or multimodal strategy.  However, solely promoting knowledge, awareness, intentions to perform, and/or execution efficacy of TSE disregards the most important aspect of cancer screening: measuring TSE behavior. 

This review provides a framework from which researchers can investigate the existing intervention literature on TSE promotion, as it is (to the author’s knowledge) the only existing meta-analysis attempting to organize the available studies.  Continuing efforts will be made to include future research into this review.  As there has been exhausting amount of descriptive, cross sectional research conducted on testicular cancer during the past 30 years, the field needs to switch course and focus on experimental interventions to increase TSE performance.  The significance demonstrated by the available intervention research suggests that increasing TSE behaviors among at-risk males is not as difficult to execute as was once believed.  TSE is a viable and useful method to prevent late-stage testicular cancer diagnoses and contribute to healthier lifestyles for at-risk males by promoting informed decision-making skills.