Men who adopt unhealthy lifestyles may be less concerned with health

According to a study conducted at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, men who adopt unhealthy lifestyles may be less concerned with health and less aware of preventive measures like the PSA test. Given the associations between smoking, physical inactivity, and obesity with prostate cancer and cardiovascular disease, men with multiple risk behaviors would seem to be ideal targets for interventions to improve their awareness of the PSA test, the study authors note.

Primary findings suggested that smoking, physical inactivity and obesity are inversely associated with awareness of the PSA test. These risk behaviors are linked with higher prostate cancer morbidity and mortality. This finding may be due to a general lack of concern about health maintenance or less interactions with health care providers by smokers.
The earlier research also indicated that patients with prostate cancer who smoke present a worse prognosis than patients who do not smoke, and that obesity is associated with more advanced stages and higher grades of prostate cancer.
The study findings were reported in the August issue of The Journal of Urology.