Racial Inequality in the Valuation of Health Outcomes Expressed by the 1992 ACS Guidelines for Prostate Cancer Screening

Authors

C. A. Beam, University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Public Health

Keywords

African American men; Diagnostic technology; Health policy; Men; White; Prostate – Cancer; Prostate – Cancer – Testing; Prostate cancer; Prostate-specific antigen; PSA; ROC Curve

Disciplines

Community-Based Research | Community Health and Preventive Medicine | Diagnosis | Oncology | Public Health | Race and Ethnicity

Abstract

In 1992, the American Cancer Society (ACS) recommended annual screening for prostate cancer for men 50 and older using PSA. In this article, I introduce a method to use race and age-specific PSA accuracy data to evaluate differences in the valuation of outcomes by race and age that were expressed by the ACS guidelines. Using this new method, it can be concluded that the guidelines implied a 4-fold greater valuation was assigned to screening young white males with prostate cancer than the value that was assigned to young black males with cancer. Future implementation of guidelines for screening and testing should recognize and rectify any social inequities that are expressed via their implementation.

Recommended Citation

Beam, C. A. (2007) "Racial Inequality in the Valuation of Health Outcomes Expressed by the 1992 ACS Guidelines for Prostate Cancer Screening," Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice: Vol. 1: Iss. 3, Article 6.
Available at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/jhdrp/vol1/iss3/6