Osteoporosis remains a major health issue worldwide. Although it has been associated with Caucasian women in the United States, attention is being drawn to other ethnicities. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) are concerned that people perceive osteoporosis to only affect Caucasian women, given that African-American (AA) women have higher bone mineral density and lower postmenopausal bone loss. This perception ignores observations that AA women are at significant risk of developing osteoporosis. As such, there is considerable delay in the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis among AA women. This cross-sectional study's design primary purpose was to describe postmenopausal AA women's knowledge, beliefs and behaviors concerning osteoporosis. Secondary to this purpose, was exploration of correlations between the Health Belief Model (HBM) theoretical constructs with osteoporosis preventive behavior, especially calcium intake and physical exercise. One hundred and fifty three postmenopausal AA women completed a questionnaire containing 1) the Osteoporosis Knowledge Test (OKT), 2) the Osteoporosis Health Belief Scale (OHBS), 3) the Osteoporosis Self-Efficacy Scale (OSES), 4) the Osteoporosis Attitude Knowledge Test (OAKT) and 5) the Osteoporosis Preventing Behaviors Survey (OPBS). The data were analyzed in SPSS version 21.0. The results of the study varied. Women in the study had greater knowledge about osteoporosis overall; they had less knowledge about preventing osteoporosis with exercise. They regularly used diet to prevent osteoporosis and reported recurrent physical activity. Participants had a general knowledge of osteoporosis but they experienced a moderate number of barriers that limited exercise. Few barriers for calcium intake were reported. Correlational analysis between age, number of months post-menopause, and education and the dependent variables (osteoporosis knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and barriers to engaging in bone health promotion activities) revealed significant correlations. Age and number of years post menopause were significantly negatively correlated with use of physical activity to prevent osteoporosis. As women aged, they engaged in less osteoporosis prevention using exercise and as the number of months post menopause increased, the exercise behaviors associated with osteoporosis prevention decreased. This is an indication that women at this age have to be educated on the importance of exercising at this stage in their life.
|Advisor:||Berg, Judith A.|
|Commitee:||Jones, Elaine G., May, Kathleen M.|
|School:||The University of Arizona|
|School Location:||United States -- Arizona|
|Source:||DAI-B 75/08(E), Dissertation Abstracts International|
|Keywords:||African American women, Health behaviors, Health beliefs, Knowledge, Osteoporosis, Postmenopausal|
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