title: Gender differences on osteoporosis health beliefs and related behaviors in non-academic community Chinese.
abstract: Osteoporosis represents the major public health concern worldwide. The purpose of this study was to assess osteoporosis beliefs and actual performance of osteoporosis preventive behaviors in non-academic community Chinese population and to explore whether the differences exist in community females and males. A cross sectional study including 137 females and 122 males was conducted in four non-academic communities of Xi'an city during November 2012, selected by multi-stage sampling method. Self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. The respondents' mean age was 56.06 ± 5.81 years. 35.5% of the participants had a bone mineral density test. The participants exhibit relatively low osteoporosis health beliefs. The total health belief score was 63.30 ± 8.55 and 64.13 ± 6.47 in females and males respectively. There was significant gender differences in the subscales of Perceived seriousness (p = 0.03), Perceived barriers to exercise (p = 0.004) and Perceived motivation (p = 0.01). Participants had low frequencies of preventive practices. Gender differences were revealed in current smoking and alcohol intake, soybean food intake, smoking history (p < 0.001), alcohol intake history (p = 0.001), meat or egg intake (p = 0.019). The findings from the study suggest an increased awareness of this major public health problem in non-academic Chinese and the scope for enhancing osteoporosis intervention considering the gender difference.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, College of Medicine, Xi'an Jiaotong University, No. 76, West Yanta Road, Xi'an, Shaanxi, 710061, People's Republic of China, cathyzh@mail.xjtu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yin-Ping
authors.initials: YP
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Ru-Yi
authors.initials: RY
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.forename: Bei
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Xin-Shuang
authors.initials: XS
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Lu-Lu
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010024:Osteoporosis / Q000517:prevention & control; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires