Awareness and Knowledge of Osteoporosis among Iraqi Women

Abstract

Background Osteoporosis is a systemic skeletal disorder characterized by a decreasing in bone density which predisposes to fragility fractures. Osteoporotic fractures affect patients quality of life and place a huge economic burden on health care system. Knowledge about symptoms and risk factors of the disease may aid in the early detection of the disease.Aim of the study The aim of this study is to evaluate the awareness, sources of information, and the level of knowledge about osteoporosis in a sample of Iraqi women.Patients and Methods A cross sectional study conducted among 250 Iraqi women selected through consecutive sample from those attending Rheumatology Unit in Baghdad Teaching Hospital during period from September 2020 to March 2021.ResultsA total 250 women studied, mean age was 48,9 ± 9.01 years, 51.6% of them postmenopausal. Majority of women 90% were aware that osteoporosis is a medical condition, while 10% had never heard of the disease, and awareness was positively correlated with education (P=< 0.001). Among 225 who were aware of osteoporosis disease, mean total knowledge score was 12.99 ± 3.77 (51.96). Percent of knowledge score of women showed that 83.1% had fair knowledge which achieved a score between ( > 25%-≤ 75%), 10.7% of women had good knowledge with a score (>75%), and 6.2% of women were with poor knowledge that obtained score (≤ 25%). Conclusion The study revealed that Iraqi women have fair knowledge about osteoporosis, misperception about specific parts of disease, and deficient information particularly to the risk factors.