RESEARCH ARTICLE
Osteoporosis Knowledge, Beliefs and Self-efficacy Among Female University Students: A Descriptive Study
Tagreed O. Shawashi1, Muhammad Darawad1, *
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2020Volume: 14
First Page: 211
Last Page: 219
Publisher ID: TONURSJ-14-211
DOI: 10.2174/1874434602014010211
Article History:
Received Date: 12/06/2020Revision Received Date: 23/08/2020
Acceptance Date: 06/09/2020
Electronic publication date: 15/10/2020
Collection year: 2020
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Aim:
This study aimed to investigate female university students' knowledge, beliefs and self-efficacy regarding osteoporosis.
Methods:
This is a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted amongst 260 female university students in Jordan. This study utilized a package of instruments to measure different variables of the study, including demographic data, Osteoporosis Knowledge Assessment Tool (OKAT), Osteoporosis Health Belief Scale (OHBS) and Osteoporosis Self-Efficacy Scale (OSES).
Results:
Participants had a relatively low level of knowledge regarding osteoporosis (M=8.1/20, 40.5%). In general, they had fairly positive beliefs towered osteoporosis with a percentage of 70% (M=3.5/5, SD=0.3) and moderate self-efficacy in practicing osteoporosis recommended practices. No significant differences were observed in participants’ knowledge, beliefs, and self-efficacy of osteoporosis based on their demographic variables except their college specialty.
Conclusion:
The current study confirmed that female university students had inadequate knowledge about osteoporosis. There is a gap between the participants' beliefs, self-efficacy about osteoporosis and their daily lifestyle. In view of such lack of knowledge of osteoporosis, efforts should be made to raise the level of osteoporosis awareness among university students through health education intervention programs for all-female university students regardless of their college, specialty or academic program.
