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

Osteoporosis is one of the most common disorders in women, affecting the quality of life by having the increasing risk of fractures. There are no data on awareness of adolescent girls as a vulnerable group about osteoporosis. The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge concerning osteoporosis among high school female students in Semnan, Iran and to evaluate the effect of educational program. This pre and post-study was performed on 583 high-school female students, whom selected from 8 schools using multi-stage sampling. The study questionnaires were completed by interviewing students. All students participated in a single education session (about 2 hours) and the level of knowledge about osteoporosis, its risk factors and complications were assessed before and after education. The mean ± SD score for general knowledge regarding osteoporosis was 0.35 ± 0.35, about complications of osteoporosis was -0.18 ± 0.53 and about risk factors for osteoporosis was also 0.25 ± 0.21. The mean total knowledge about osteoporosis was the highest in third high school grade girls (P = 0.009), while no difference was observed in score of knowledge towards osteoporosis across the different educational fields (P = 0.156). The mean total score of knowledge toward osteoporosis was significantly increased after educational intervention compared to prior to the educational program with the mean ± SD pre-educational score 0.23 ± 0.19 (median 0.26) and post-educational score 0.45 ± 0.22 (median 0.48) (P < 0.001). In conclusion, our results indicated that awareness of Semnan high schools girls on osteoporosis, especially about its complications is poor. Lack of awareness could be due to the lack of training. Thus, more training needed with a focus on understanding the causes of disease and its complications in order to resolve the problem and reduce the incidence of osteoporosis. So by increasing awareness regarding this disease, there is a potential for prevention and reduction of the complications.