THE majority of Jamaican men are not doing the necessary screening to safeguard against prostate cancer even though the country has the highest rate of that disease in the Caribbean, according to the 2007/8 Jamaica Health and Lifestyle Survey II released Tuesday.

At the same time, the study said approximately one third of the female population was not being screened for cervical and breast cancer.

"We found 79 per cent of our men have never done a digital rectal exam (DRE)," said Shelly McFarlane, a member of the research group that conducted the survey. "Having a DRE in the past two years was more frequent in those men of higher socio-economic standard (SES) versus those at middle or lower SES," she added.

According to WebMD, a digital (finger) rectal examination is done to check for problems with organs or other structures in the pelvis and lower belly such as the prostate. During the examination, a health professional gently puts a lubricated, gloved finger of one hand into the rectum.

McFarlane said a rectal exam in the last year was more frequent among men with higher education. However, employment status didn't appear to be strongly associated with rectal exam. It is also suspected that the men with higher education were also diagnosed with enlarged prostate due to regular testing.

"Even though they may be more educated they are still shying away from doing a DRE," she said, adding that the diagnosis of an enlarged prostate did not vary much across education or employment categories.

Two thousand nine hundred and eighty-nine persons were surveyed and of that number 31 per cent or 887 of the participants were men.

The study also revealed that 13 per cent of the men reported having done a rectal exam in the last two years and of this number 11 per cent were diagnosed with an enlarged prostate.

Meantime, the study said 35 per cent of Jamaican women have never had a pap smear and that the frequency of having a pap smear had declined over the years.

Close to 30 per cent of the women said they did a pap three or more years ago, while 18 per cent said they had a pap smear in the past year. Another 18 per cent said they had one done between one and two years ago.

Sixty-nine per cent or 1,961 of the participants were women.

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