Abstract A055: Haitian and African American men’s knowledge of and willingness to utilize at-home colon cancer screening tests
Authors: Jean-Louis Alexandra , Hensel Brooke , Guzman Ileana , Webb Fern 
Published: December 2023

Background: Black men have the highest colon cancer incidence and mortality rates compared to other racial/ethnic groups. Studies comparing U.S.-born individuals to U.S. immigrants, foreign-born populations have lower rates of colon cancer screening (CCS). Understanding if Haitian (HA) and African American (AA) men know about colon cancer (CC) and CCS tests utilization is of high importance given the multifactorial causes of disparities among these groups. As CCS tests are commercially available for at-home use, what remains unknown is if HA and AA men know of at-home CCS availability and are more inclined to complete this non-invasive method. Specific aims of this research were to assess knowledge and willingness to use at-home CCS and examine whether knowledge and willingness differs by ethnicity and age. Methodology: Self-identifying HA and/or AA men, 18+ years old, and living in Miami, Florida were invited to complete an online survey. Univariate analyses assessing CCS knowledge and willingness was conducted where ethnicity and age were separately reported. In addition, logistic regression analyses were conducted with CCS knowledge (yes/no) and willingness to use at-home CCS (yes/no) were separately modeled with ethnicity and age entered into the model as co-variates. Results: 20 (56%) men self-identifying as ‘HA’ and 16 (44%) men self-identifying as ‘AA’ completed an online survey in December 2021. Regarding knowledge, only 30% of HA men were knowledgeable about CCS compared with 43% of AA men (p=0.39). Regarding age, men &gt;45 years were more knowledgeable about CCS (89% vs. 56%, p=0.07), which trended toward significance. On the other hand, men &gt;45 years of age were significantly more willing to receive CCS (77% vs. 22%, p&lt;0.003) compared with men &lt;45 years old. Although not statistically significantly different, HA men (75%) were more willing to use at-home CCS compared to AA men (50%) (p=0.12). When controlling for both ethnicity and age, older men were significantly more knowledgeable (OR=12.2, CI: 1.09-71.4) about CCS while HA men were significantly more willing to receive CCS (OR=5.88, CI: 1.03-33.3). Discussion: Our results are consistent with other study findings that older persons are more knowledgeable about CCS and are more willing to receive CCS, which may represent a natural aging effect. Information about CCS benefits to assess for more suitable interventions, potentially save lives and reduce cancer mortality disparities must be shared with HA and AA men to increase community-level tailored education about CCS. Further studies are needed to provide insight into the best practices to screen and treat men in high-risk cancer groups given the lack of studies involving HA and AA adult men. Conclusion: Understanding what HA and AA men know about at-home CCS availability and potential benefits is significant given cited disparities and hesitancy to undergo invasive diagnostic methods. 

Citation Format: Alexandra Jean-Louis, Brooke Hensel, Ileana Guzman, Fern Webb. Haitian and African American men’s knowledge of and willingness to utilize at-home colon cancer screening tests [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 16th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2023 Sep 29-Oct 2;Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2023;32(12 Suppl):Abstract nr A055.