Rates of Documented Prostate Cancer Screening Shared Decision-Making Very Low

WEDNESDAY, July 8, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Rates of prostate cancer screening shared decision-making (SDM) are very low in family medicine practices, according to a study published in the June issue of the Southern Medical Journal.

Nicholas Shungu, M.D., from the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, and colleagues reviewed the medical records of 600 men (aged 45 to 69 years) seen at an academic family medicine practice between 2019 and 2020 to determine whether SDM affects rates of prostate cancer screening.

The researchers found that SDM conversations were documented for 7.3 percent of Black men and 5.3 percent of non-Black men. Screening prostate-specific antigen tests were similarly ordered for the two groups (39.7 percent of Black men and 36.0 percent of non-Black men). There was a positive association between SDM conversations and prostate cancer screening in all men, with 71.8 percent of those who had SDM conversations undergoing PSA screening versus 35.6 percent of those who did not have SDM conversations. This association was also seen among Black men specifically (85.0 versus 35.7 percent).

“One of the biggest takeaways was the surprisingly low rate of documented shared decision-making conversations,” Shungu said in a statement. “The other key finding was that when those conversations were documented, screening was much more likely to occur.”

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