Background/Purpose: Osteoporosis is one of the most common metabolic bone disorders and is  associated with an increased risk of fracture.^[1]  Data suggests that 20% of women over fifty in India suffer from osteoporosis.^[2] As one of the primary care providers, nurses have a major role in prevention, assessment, and teaching related to osteoporosis and therefore their knowledge about this disease is paramount.^[3] Very few surveys have been undertaken with the express aim of assessing the knowledge nurses have about osteoporosis in urban India. This would help in designing or updating nursing curriculums and conducting refresher courses for staff. This study aims to assess the knowledge of nursing students and staff nurses employed in a medical college in an urban area of Western India.

Methods: This was a cross sectional study conducted in a medical college in a city in Western India. Institutional ethics committee approval and written informed consent from each participant was taken before start of study. Osteoporosis Knowledge Assessment Test (OKAT) questionnaire was administered in paper to 141 final year nursing students and staff nurses.This is a validated questionnaire with 20 questions having 3 options of true/false/don’t know. Each correct answer is scored as 1 and incorrect or don’t know answer as 0. The score ranges from 0-20. Total score of 0–7 is classified as poor knowledge, 8–13 as good knowledge and 14 points or higher as excellent knowledge.^[4] 

Results: 100 staff nurses (70.9%) and 41 nursing students (29.1%) volunteered to take the questionnaire.The mean score was 10.65 +  3.23 . It was significantly higher in the over 30 year age group. The mean score was higher in staff nurses than in students but difference was not statistically significant. 66.7% of the participants exhibited good knowledge and 14.2% showed a poor knowledge for osteoporosis. Question 1 (Osteoporosis leads to an increased risk of bone fractures) was scored correctly most number of times in both groups and across ages, with 92.2% correct responses. Question 2 [Osteoporosis usually causes symptoms (e.g. pain) before fractures occur] had least number of correct responses (28.4%). Significantly more number of staff nurses answered two questions correctly as compared to students, while significantly more nurses over 30 years of age answered one question correctly.

Conclusion: Mean scores of knowledge for osteoporosis can be graded as “good”. The score was significantly higher in the over 30 age group although 14.2% of participants still had poor knowledge.

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ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/assessment-of-knowledge-of-osteoporosis-among-female-nursing-students-and-staff-nurses-in-an-urban-medical-college-in-india/