الفهرس 
Introduction
OsteoporosisOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Osteoporosis is a debilitating and silent metabolic disorder. It is considered as a ”silent killer” that millions of people suffer from. It has become one of the most prevalent and costly health problem that can lead to many complications with substantial morbidity, mortality and reduced quality of life.
Awareness of osteoporosis remains low especially in less developed countries, although is the first step in osteoporosis prevention is making individuals aware of its risk factors. Osteoporosis is considered preventable by means of adequate nutrition, sufficient physical activity and healthy lifestyle. Participation in ”Health educational intervention programs” is effective in osteoporosis prevention and treatment.
This study was conducted to implement health education interventional program upon a convenient sample of 260 female employees of faculty medicine at Ain-Shams University and to compare their knowledge, attitude and practice towards osteoporosis prevention before and after the intervention.
The knowledge, attitude and preventive practice of the participants were assessed by a pretest questionnaire just before the intervention, the same questionnaire was distributed upon the participants just after the intervention (posttest) and 2 months afterwards (2 months posttest).
The intervention was a health education program in the form of lecture (power-point presentation) about osteoporosis. It includes general information about osteoporosis as definition, prevalence, modifiable and non-modifiable risk, clinical picture, complications, prevention, diagnosis and treatment. Pamphlets were distributed upon the participants after the lecture after collecting the posttest questionnaire. Pamphlets include the important points that was in the lecture to ensure knowledge sustainability after the end of the program.
The questionnaire included socio-demographic, knowledge, attitude, Dietary and Preventive Practice sections. The Socio- demographic data was collected once in the pretest. Questions about knowledge and attitude about osteoporosis were asked 3 times: pretest, posttest and 2 months posttest. Questions about osteoporosis preventive practice were asked twice, once in the pretest and the second time 2 months posttest so that to give opportunity for the participants to change behavior.
Both descriptive and inferential statistics were done using SPSS program version 20. Descriptive statistics used were frequency and percentage for all qualitative data. Mean and standard deviation for all quantitative data. Inferential statistics used include Student paired T to compare quantitative data as the mean scores of knowledge pretest, posttest and 2 months posttest. McNemar and Wilcoxon tests were used to compare qualitative data pretest and posttest.
The majority of the participants were between (50- 59) years old, finished secondary education and married. Most of them have 2-3 children with mean age at first pregnancy 25 years and time interval between pregnancies greater than 2 years. About half of the participants were obese. Most of the participants gain their knowledge about osteoporosis from television.
Most of the participants had poor general knowledge about osteoporosis in the pretest, the most identified risk factors of osteoporosis among them were female gender and lack of dairy products, also many of the participants recognized fracture as osteoporosis complication, but only half of them knew bone mineral density measurement as a diagnostic method of osteoporosis. Participants showed significant increase in all knowledge items of osteoporosis general information, risk factors, clinical picture, complications and prevention in both the posttest and 2 months posttest (P<0.001).
There was significant increase in the participants attitude towards osteoporosis preventive practice including sun exposure, consumption of calcium rich diet, sports performance and early BMD measurement in posttest and 2 months posttest (P<0.001).
As regards the participents osteoporosis preventive practice in the posttest, it showed significant increase in consumption of calcium rich food from both dairy and non-dairy products. Also in their sun exposure, sports performance, Calcium supplementation intake and BMD measurement (P value< 0.001).
Since the health education intervention was effective in increasing knowledge, attitude and practice as regards osteoporosis prevention, it should be implemented upon other vulnerable.
Further research is needed to check for sustainability of the knowledge and behavior changes attained after the health education intervention over longer duration.