Raza Elahi Rana, Muhammad Hanif, Rana Muhammad Arshad, Khalid Syed, Muhammad Aftab Anwar, Sohaib Mazhar Siddiqui, Abdur Rehman Sani, Faiza Almas, Ammara Sana, Kazi Muhammad Saeed.
Level of awareness of osteoporosis among health care providers – a study of four tertiary referral hospitals of Lahore.
J Pak Orthop Assoc Jan ;25(2):27-30.

Lack of knowledge among patients regarding osteoporosis is a big barrier to the management of this disease. This study was carried out to assess the knowledge of osteoporosis among healthcare providers who were more than 40 years of age. Material and Method: Doctors and nurses of age more than 40 years, working in four major teaching hospitals of Lahore, Pakistan (Mayo Hospital, Services Institute of Medical Sciences, Lady Wallingdon Hospital and Jinnah Hospital) were approached randomly and asked to fill out a questionnaire. This questionnaire consisted of two parts. The first part consisted of 20 simple questions to be answered by checking “true”, “false” or “don’t know”. These questions were developed by Ailinger in “Facts on Osteoporosis Quiz” (FOOQ). The other part of the questionnaire had brief questions regarding the biodata and educational qualification of the respondent. Results: The study revealed that most of the health care providers were unaware or had insufficient knowledge of the disease. Not a single respondent gave 100% correct answers. Out of 20 questions the Mean score of correct answers was 14.72, the least score was 8/20 and best was of 18/20. 17% of the respondents had good knowledge, 42% had average and 41% had poor knowledge. Respondents showed variable response on different aspects of osteoporosis. Conclusion: There is an urgent need for re-education of the health care providers about osteoporosis. This can be done with seminars, workshops and interactive sessions discussing gravity and the magnitude of the disease.

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