Osteoporosis Knowledge of Students in Relevant Healthcare Academic Programs

Abstract

For healthcare professionals who treat individuals with osteoporosis, it is vital that they receive adequate education on osteoporosis to ensure sufficient knowledge of osteoporosis to properly treat individuals with the disease. To test for adequate osteoporosis education, a study was conducted to measure osteoporosis knowledge in 206 students in relevant healthcare academic programs, such as nursing, pharmacy, physical therapy, and dietetics. The study showed that differences existed in osteoporosis knowledge in general between the programs and between different years of students in the same programs. There were also discrepancies in specific areas of osteoporosis knowledge between the classes of students, and the average scores of correctly answered items were only as high as 24.40 (76.3%) out of 32 items on osteoporosis knowledge. This study shows that students have osteoporosis knowledge and that it is not completely inadequate; however, osteoporosis knowledge could still be more sufficient, and results demonstrate the need to increase osteoporosis education in the curriculum for these healthcare academic programs to increase osteoporosis knowledge and better prepare graduates and professionals to treat individuals with the disease.

A Review of Knowledge, Belief and Practice Regarding Osteoporosis among Adolescents and Young Adults

“…The studies were performed in various countries and regions. The majority of the studies are from Saudi Arabia [ 15 , 17 , 18 , 19 ], Sri Lanka [ 20 ], Canada [ 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 ], Thailand [ 25 , 26 ] and South Korea [ 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 ], Jordan [ 31 , 32 ], Malaysia [ 33 , 34 ], China [ 35 , 36 ] and the rest are from United States [ 35 ], Nigeria [ 4 ], Taiwan [ 37 ], Syria [ 38 ], India [ 39 ], Poland [ 40 ], Denmark [ 41 ], U.K. [ 42 ], Iran [ 43 ], Pakistan [ 44 ], Columbia [ 45 ], the Basque region (Spain) [ 46 ], Japan [ 47 ] and Australia [ 48 ]. Most of the studies included in this review used either self-designed or validated questionnaire to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice among subjects regarding bone health/osteoporosis.…”

Knowledge Towards Prevention of Osteoporosis in Adolescent Girls: Effect of Educational Program

“…In other studies, low awareness about this disease and its related risk factors was expressed emphasizing on necessity for educational sessions and courses even in advanced ages (17)(18)(19).…”

Osteoporosis knowledge assessment and osteoporosis education recommendations in the health professions

“…In the field of nursing, nursing students of various grade levels have been shown to have low osteoporosis knowledge, with researchers recommending interventions to increase osteoporosis knowledge [9] , [10] . Even in senior nursing students, osteoporosis knowledge is inadequate [11] , [12] , [13] , with limited knowledge of aspects including risk factors, detection, treatment, and preventive measures. Although osteoporosis education can lead to higher levels of osteoporosis knowledge in nursing students [14] , and even though there is some osteoporosis education in the nursing curriculum [15] , there is a need for even more osteoporosis education, as osteoporosis knowledge has still been found to be inadequate in senior nursing students, as well as in practitioners in nursing, to treat individuals with the disease.…”

“…For other health fields besides medicine and nursing, students studying pharmacy, physical therapy, and dietetics have some osteoporosis knowledge, but levels were still insufficient in terms of general osteoporosis knowledge, particularly knowledge of osteoporosis risk factors and knowledge of exercise and nutrition in relation to osteoporosis and bone health, showing a need for increased osteoporosis education in their respective curricula to better prepare them to work with individuals with osteoporosis in practice after they graduate [13] . Various health professionals working in orthopedics and rehabilitation, such as dietitians, physical therapists and physical therapy assistants, occupational therapists occupational therapy assistants, pharmacists, technologists, among other professionals, generally have low to only moderate osteoporosis knowledge [19] , even when working in an orthopedic setting.…”