Bone Abstracts

Aims and background: Osteoporosis is a growing public health problem in developing countries. Awareness can lead to reduction in the incidence of the disease and consequently the fragility fractures.

Osteoporosis knowledge is an important contributor to improving management and treatment of patients. The aim of this study was to measure osteoporosis knowledge among Lebanese physicians.

Subjects and methods: Representative random samples of Lebanese physicians in two referral health centers in Lebanon were asked to answer 30-item standardized questionnaire addressing their knowledge about osteoporosis. The response time was assumed to take 10 min. The questionnaire distributed covered 15 specialties working in both centers. Cut off points were applied and assessment based on questionnaires ranged from poor to very good.

Results: Answers were received from 102 physicians, 83 males and 19 females, mean age was 34.91 years, and mean time elapsed since graduation was 10.39 years.

Lebanese physicians appeared well informed about general knowledge, risk factors and prevention strategies of osteoporosis. 80% of them considered that veiled ladies are more prone to have vitamin D insufficiency and 65% of them knew about VDR and its importance. Lebanese doctors considered vitamin D (95%), physical activity and sun exposure (92%) as crucial issues in preventing osteoporosis. Most difficult questions appeared to be those concerning different kinds of diets and its impact on bone health. Whereas 44% of responders had limited knowledge about PTH treatment regimen and considered nasal calcitonin as first line of treatment. Thirty percent never heard about strontium ranelate but 80% of them had considerable knowledge of bisphosphonates.

Conclusion: Lebanese physicians have considerable awareness of the importance of preventing osteoporosis. They were active in identifying groups at risk but our findings stress the need to extend the knowledge of physicians regarding different treatment regimens and clinical methods. Proper dissemination of osteoporosis treatment knowledge may further enhance evidence based treatment for the disease.