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The nagging wife may save your life.

Men who live with a woman are 40 per cent more likely to be screened for prostate cancer than men who live alone, even if they have a family history of the disease, according to a new study.

"We looked at not only marital status, but whether or not they lived with someone versus being single or living alone. The presence of having someone else in your life is somehow positively influencing the man's screening behaviour," said the study's lead author Lauren Wallner, a graduate research associate at the University of Michigan.

Ms. Wallner and her colleagues looked at the medical records of 2,115 Minnesota men between the ages of 40 and 79 from the 1990s onward - the study is ongoing. The men also completed questionnaires about their family history of prostate cancer, concern about getting the disease, and their marital status.

Those with a family history were 50 per cent more likely to get screened.

Still, the likelihood decreased if they lived alone despite the well-established link between early testing and survival, according to the findings published in this month's issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

"In terms of motivating people to get screened, there may be a benefit to targeting wives or significant others as well as men," Ms. Wallner said.

Although the study was conducted in the United States, the findings also appear to hold true for Canada.

Last spring, the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation of Canada asked 500 men and 500 women over the age of 40 across Canada who it was that booked the doctor's appointments in the family.

"Only about half of the men we surveyed booked their own annual physicals," said Greg Sarney, the foundation's vice-president of marketing.

"We also found that 85 per cent of women remind the men in their lives to schedule their annual physicals. They're obviously the ones staying on top of it."

Former firefighter John Wagontall, who lives in Lethbridge, Alta., was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2004 and given five to seven years to live. Two years later, he cycled across the country to raise awareness about the disease. He stopped at fire halls along the way and spoke to firefighters; research has shown they are more vulnerable to several types of cancer, including prostate.

"I have heard from a large number of men that they are less likely to go to a doctor without some prodding from wives or significant others," said Mr. Wagontall, 50.

The findings do not surprise psychologist Ross Gray, who counselled people with cancer and their families at Toronto's Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre for two decades.

"Men make less use of all kinds of preventative services than do women," Mr. Gray said.

"Men growing up learn to not pay attention to health issues. It's part of traditional masculinity that paying too much attention to health is kind of unmanly. It's not so much that they're looking to rely on women. Men don't go there themselves pro-actively."

Prostate cancer is the No. 1 cancer threat to Canadian men. It will afflict one in seven men in their lifetimes - about 24,700 men this year alone, according to the foundation.

Mr. Sarney said many men do not realize they have a history of prostate cancer until after they're diagnosed. Aside from digital rectal exams, Mr. Sarney recommends that men ask for prostate specific antigen tests. He suggests getting a baseline test at 40 and going for annual testing at 50.

Still, the issue is complicated by the fact that many men develop slow-growing tumours that may not prove to be life-threatening. As a result, some doctors adopt a policy of "watchful waiting," in which treatment is put off until the aggressiveness of the tumour can be determined.

Experts agree that prostate education materials should be targeted at women to reflect the fact that it is wives and girlfriends who run the health agenda at home.