This one year pilot study has four major aims: (1) To describe what prostate cancer (PCa) means to newly diagnosed men and their wives, how it has affected their lives and how they deal with it on a day-to-day basis; (2), to examine the influence of spouses on men's self-care for this chronic disorder; (3) To document differences, if any, between European/White and African-American/ Black couples in how they experience and deal with Pca; and, (4) to develop a larger proposal that further explores salient issues discovered in the course of this work. This prospective anthropological study uses well-established qualitative research techniques to explore the experience of prostate cancer. Thirty men (15 White, 15 Black) from urology or oncology clinics, and their wives, will each be interviewed. The men, aged 50 or more, may have any stage or grade of cancer, and may receive any type of treatment either singly or in combination. Face-to-face semi-structured interviews will document what the men and their spouses experience in the two months post-diagnosis; the wife's influence on the man's self care activities; the impact of diagnosis and treatment on family, social and work relationships and activities. Analytic strategies will comprise standard text-based qualitative techniques. This timely proposal is innovative. First because it includes the wife's perspective as a central domain of research. Second, it examines broadly the man's socio-cultural and family context to in order to understand his interpretation of the disease and his self-care activities. Third, and most importantly, the proposal centrally examines the experience of Black/African- Americans. Since Black men experience prostate cancer at higher rates and with more severe consequences than do White men, it is imperative that the unique viewpoints and experiences of Blacks be documented. Findings will be useful in several domains, including in the public health/health promotion arena as well as within clinical medicine.
