The effectiveness of an osteoporosis prevention education programme for women in Hong Kong: a randomized controlled trial.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether a nurse-initiated education programme on four specific osteoporosis-prevention related behaviours leads to their adoption or positive attitude changes compared with women who did not participate in this programme.


METHODS
The design was a randomized controlled design and the setting was a local private beauty clinic.


METHODS
Pre-, post- and follow-up education data compared attitudes and consumption frequency before and after the education programme.


RESULTS
The results showed significant increases in the reported follow-up for each behaviour: consumption of soya foods (mean = 4.3, SD = 0.5), milk (mean = 4.2, SD = 0.8), more exercise (mean = 4.3, SD = 0.5) and vitamin D/exposure to sunlight (mean = 4.2, SD = 0.9) for subjects in the case group compared with control group subjects (soya foods: mean = 3.3, SD = 0.9, P < 0.001; milk: mean = 3.0, SD = 0.9, P < 0.001; more exercise: mean = 3.4, SD = 1.0, P = 0.003; vitamin D/sunlight: mean = 2.7, SD = 0.9, P < 0.00). Most of the participants either disagreed (n = 11, 55.0%) or strongly disagreed (n = 9, 45.0%) that there was not enough information provided in the education programme to motivate them to change. On the satisfaction score, they rated the nurse's performance as either satisfactory (n = 11, 55.0%) or very satisfactory (n = 9, 45.0%) on presentation and ability to answer their questions and either satisfactory (n = 12, 60.0%) or very satisfactory (n = 8, 40.0%) on ability to describe each behaviour clearly.


CONCLUSIONS
A targeted education programme conducted with Hong Kong women resulted in significantly increased consumption of calcium including soya-based foods, milk and vitamin D. According to the reported attitudinal and behavioural intentions, participants' positive feedback suggests that women who participated in this educational programme were motivated to make changes and benefited from the support of this nurse-initiated education programme.


CONCLUSIONS
Osteoporosis was a serious health concern that most commonly affected women. As indicated by the results of this study, this educational programme can act as simple but effective nursing intervention to promote women's attitudinal and behavioural intentions towards osteoporosis-prevention.
Chan
Moon Fai
MF
School of Nursing, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China. hsmfchan@inet.polyu.edu.hk
Ko
Chung Ying
CY
Day
Mary Christine
MC
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D004521:Educational Measurement; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006266:Health Education / Q000458:organization & administration*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006723:Hong Kong / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D015402:Nursing Education Research; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D052756:Nutritional Sciences / Q000193:education; D015663:Osteoporosis, Postmenopausal / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012307:Risk Factors; D040242:Risk Reduction Behavior; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014930:Women / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology; D014932:Women's Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*