ABSTRACT

Background: Prostate cancer is one of the most prevalent diseases among men and its one of the major health problems in developing countries. It has a large impact on the quality of patients’ life and their caregivers and imposes heavy costs on them.

Aim: To evaluate effectiveness of an educational program on employees knowledge concerning contributing factors and early detection for prostate cancer.

Methodology: This is a quasi-experimental study carried out on 160 employees working in colleges of Baghdad University in bab-Almudam region, in Baghdad City, Iraq. This study starts from 5th, October 2019 to 10thMarch, 2021. Aged 18 to 63 years (the subjects 80 experimental and 80 control groups). Research tool (Structured knowledge questionnaire) was developed by researcher through review of literature and previous study restated topics and submitted to 16 experts from various specialists for validity. Reliability was calculated by Cronbach alpha method and it was 0.86 to assess knowledge of males regarding contributing factors and early detection for prostate cancer. Data collection was done in December 2019 to January 2020. The obtained data was analyzed and interpreted in terms of objectives and research hypotheses. Analysis was done by using descriptive and inferential statistics.

Results:The study findings indicated that, there were highly significant differences between study and control groups and also between pre and posttests in study group in overall main domains related to employees’ knowledge concerning contributing factors and early detection for prostate cancer.However, no significant change was observed in the control group.

Conclusions: The results of the current study revealed effectiveness of the educational program in increasing the knowledge about prostate cancer and participation in early detection methods testing in men over 40 years of age.

Keywords:Effectiveness, Educational Program,Employees', Knowledge, Early Detection, Prostate Cancer