Knowledge and practice of men towards benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) in Sinazongwe district, Southern province.

Abstract

The study was aimed at determining the Knowledge and Practice of men towards Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy (BPH) in Sinazongwe District, Southern Province. Literature review on Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy was collected on studies done Globally, Regionally and Nationally. It was indicative that a lot of men after the age of 45years had BPH without them knowing until the situation had worsened 10 years or later. It was also observed that the pain the patient experienced could have been prevented. Assessing the men's knowledge and practice towards BPH was necessary because it would help these men understand and adopt good practices and reduce the risk of cancer and death from such a condition. The study was conducted on 50 elderly men above the age of 55 years of whom some had suffered from the disease. A non experimental descriptive study design was used. For selecting the sample, a multi stage sampling method was used. This took place from 2nd to 30l September 2008 in Maamba, Sinazongwe District. A self administered questionnaire was used to collect data. After collecting the data, it was computed on the master sheet as quantitative and qualitative data which was later analysed manually and interpreted using frequency tables. Cross tabulations were also used to determine relationships between variables. The study revealed that the majority (80%) of the 50 respondents had lack of knowledge of BPH while (60%) of the respondents had good practice towards BPH given the knowledge. This indicated that the male's lack of knowledge affected them either positively or negatively for them to seek help and acquire the necessary care. The literature also revealed that age was a major predisposing factor to BPH, while the majority of the respondents were agreeable and accepted the condition as inevitable. This indicated that their practice would be subjective to the knowledge they had over the disease.