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Purpose: To answer the questions: How important is osteoporosis education? What are the topics that must be included in osteoporosis education?
Design: Nonexperimental descriptive.
Sample: 225 questionnaires were distributed to Registered Nurses in acute, ambulatory, and long-term care; 139 (62%) responded.
Methods: Nurse experts in osteoporosis developed and refined a needs assessment questionnaire that was distributed by mail. The 5-page questionnaire included demographic items. Other items inquired about the respondent's perceived need for osteoporosis education for patients and nurses, and the respondent's knowledge of and need for education in 27 specific topics.
Findings: Respondents expressed strong interest in and need for an educational program on osteoporosis. They rated their (mean) knowledge of 22 of 27 specific topics as between "limited" and "adequate." Subjects delineated important core content to be included in the educational program. These subjects included risk factors, prevention, assessment, calcium intake, nutrition, menopause, pharmacotherapeutics, and fall prevention.
Conclusions: Subjects found their own knowledge of certain topics in osteoporosis as less than adequate. Subjects documented the need for osteoporosis education for patients and nurses.
Implications for Nursing Education: There is a need for continuing education offerings to inform nurses and patients about osteoporosis prevention, detection, and management.
Key words: Research, Nursing Learning, Osteoporosis, Needs Assessment.
steoporosis is an age-related disorder of bone fragility that affects over 25 million Americans (Galsworthy & Wilson, 1996; National Osteoporosis Foundation, 1997). The annual cost of osteoporosis care is estimated to approach $14 billion (Cauley et al., 1995; Fox et al., 1997) in the United States. It is estimated that osteoporosis precipitates 1.5 million fractures annually. These fractures cause pain, disability, a decrease in quality of life, and even death (Lappe, 1994).
Femoral fractures constitute a significant cause of mortality and disability in the elderly. The incidence of fractures is expected to double in the next 25 years (Sambrook, 1996) due to the rapidly growing proportion of elderly in the United States. The number of people over age 65 is expected to reach 51 million by the year 2020 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1996; Mikulencak, 1993).
Osteoporosis is a silent disease; there may be no symptoms until the disabling fracture occurs. The key to prevention of osteoporosis is early detection and prevention within the vulnerable,...