Nine In Ten Urologists In Ontario Regularly Screen Men With PSA Tests

Toronto, ON - Nine in ten Urologists in Ontario (89%) always or often "screen men using a PSA test", according to a new Ipsos-Reid survey of Urologists in Ontario conducted on behalf of Early Prostate Cancer Diagnosis Ontario and released today. Nearly one in ten Urologist in Ontario (8%) say they screen men using a PSA test "occasionally", while just 3% say they do so "rarely".

Eight in ten Urologists in Ontario (80%) oppose "OHIPs decision not to cover PSA tests" (62% "strongly oppose", 18% "somewhat oppose"), 9% have a "neutral" opinion about this decision, and 11% support this decision (3% "somewhat support", 8% "strongly support").

Nearly all Urologists in Ontario (95%) agree with the statement "high-risk men - those with a family history or of African descent - should be screened more often than other men" (85% "strongly agree", 11% "somewhat agree"), 2% have a "neutral" opinion about this statement, and 3% "somewhat disagree" with this statement.

These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid/ Early Prostate Cancer Diagnosis Ontario survey conducted from June 8th to July 16th, 2004. For the survey, a representative randomly selected sample of 65 Urologists in Ontario was interviewed (52 via telephone and 13 via fax or email). With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 177 8.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire urologist population of Ontario been polled. The Urologists targeted in this research are in active practice. In order to ensure applicability for this study several screening criteria were utilized. All participating Urologists must: Have been a practicing Urologist for between 2 and 40 years; spend more than 40% of their professional time actively treating patients; and consider themselves aware of the current PSA funding and reimbursement status.

Please open the attached PDF to view the factum and detailed tables.

For more information on this news release, please contact:

Yola Zdanowicz
Vice-President
Ipsos Insight
(416) 324-2900