Bone Abstracts

Previous studies have demonstrated that patients with osteoporosis (OP) have a poor understanding of their bone disease and that this negatively influences treatment decisions and medication compliance. The aim of this study is to determine if there is a discrepancy between perceived and objective disease knowledge (PK and OK, respectively) in patients with OP and whether this correlates with certain patient characteristics.

Design and methods: After ethics approval, 121 patients of any age/gender referred to the Osteoporosis Clinic were provided questionnaires to assess their PK and OK overall and in each of four domains: general OP, prevention and treatment, risk factors, and consequences of OP. Overall correlation between PK and OK was assessed using the Spearman’s correlation coefficient. Multivariate analysis was performed to look at association of demographic variables with PK and OK. Internal consistency for PK surveys overall and in each of the four domains was established using Cronbach’s alpha. A Spearman’s correlation coefficient was calculated between our PK and OK surveys and results obtained using previously validated surveys addressing the same.

Results: There is a low-moderate correlation (Spearman’s coefficient 0.542) between PK and OK, with PK generally greater than OK (67.1 vs 51.7%). PK is significantly increased by attendance at an osteoporosis educational session (P 0.0021) and by a prior visit at the Osteoporosis Clinic (P 0.0021).Conversely, OK correlates positively with increasing education level (P 0.0002). Internal consistency for overall PK was reasonable with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.836, however was poor in the consequences of OP domain (Cronbach’s alpha of 0.547). Spearman’s correlation coefficient showed a high-moderate correlation between survey results and those achieved with previously validated surveys.

In conclusion, patients require further education regarding OP to minimize the disparity between PK and OK. This may be best achieved through additional education sessions. Questionnaires have been modified to improve poor internal consistency in the consequences of OP domain and this study is ongoing using the modified questionnaires.