What is the impact of osteoporosis education and bone mineral density testing for postmenopausal women in a managed care setting?

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Abstract
To assess whether osteoporosis education, with and without bone mineral density (BMD) testing, increases the initiation of lifestyle changes and pharmaceutical treatment to prevent osteoporosis. A total of 508 women, aged 54–65, from a large managed care organization who were not on osteoporosis prevention therapy participated in an intervention study. Participants were randomly assigned to either an education class on osteoporosis (n = 301) or education plus BMD (n = 207). A control group of 187 women receiving no intervention were also surveyed to serve as comparison. Group differences and differences based on BMD test result were compared 6 months after education regarding self-reported changes in health behaviors using χ2 tests and logistic regression analyses. Of the 508 intervention participants, 455 (90%) responded to the follow-up survey. Initiation of hormone replacement therapy was reported by 9%, with 5% reporting starting alendronate. More than half reported changes in diet, exercise, or calcium intake. Forty-three percent increased their vitamin D intake. There were no significant group differences in behavior except with regard to pharmaceutical therapy; subjects with education plus BMD were three times more likely than those receiving education only to report starting hormone replacement therapy (p = 0.004). Low BMD scores were associated with increasing vitamin D intake (p = 0.03) and starting medication (p = 0.001). Women in the intervention groups were significantly more likely to report modifying their diet (p p Education regarding osteoporosis prevention seems to encourage women to make lifestyle changes. The inclusion of BMD testing enhances the likelihood that women will consider pharmaceutical therapy.

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