Osteoporosis education: Evaluation of an awareness program among female university students

Introduction: Osteoporosis is a major worldwide health problem represented through decreased bone density. Females at younger ages should be the target for all efforts fighting against this disease aiming toward raising their awareness and promoting healthy behaviours.& nbsp;Purpose: To evaluate the effectiveness of an osteoporosis educational program in promoting female Jordanian university students' knowledge, attitudes and self-efficacy regarding osteoporosis.& nbsp;Method: The design of the research was a randomized control using a one-day educational program as the intervention. Two times of measurement were conducted (before and four weeks after the educational program) to measure participants' knowledge regarding osteoporosis, attitudes and self-efficacy toward osteoporosis.& nbsp;Results: A total of 184 female university students participated in this study randomly assigned to interventional (n=112, 60.9%) and control groups (n=72, 39.1%). Before attending the educational program, participants in both groups were found to have relatively low level of knowledge, negative attitudes, and poor self-efficacy toward osteoporosis. Results of the post test indicated that participants who attended the program had significant improvement in all study variables compared to those who did not.& nbsp;Conclusion: Conducting an osteoporosis education program had positive effects on the female Jordanian university students' knowledge, attitudes, and self-efficacy. Our results support the importance of conducting awareness programs for this population and confirms the need to include an osteoporosis educational program in university curricula.