Abstract

Background: Osteoporosis is a chronic disease and its clinical consequences which take place are detected late, it progresses silently and its signs and symptoms are mostly discovered after a fracture has already occurred. Aim: to evaluate the knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of university students towards osteoporosis, and identify the set of key demographic and socio-economic factors that jointly influence the KAP of osteoporosis in the United Arabs Emirates (UAE). Design and Setting: This was a descriptive cross sectional study conducted amongst a random sample of medical and nonmedical students from Ajman university, united Arab Emiratis (UAE). The study was carried out by a self-administered questionnaire. It was composed of demographic, knowledge, attitude and practice information on osteoporosis. Results: A total of 400 subjects participated in the study, and completed the whole questionnaire. Among these participants, 50 % were male, 90.5% were single, 17% had UAE nationality, and 10.8% complained about a bone disease. The average KAP score was 69% with a 95% confidence interval (CI) [68%, 71%]. This meant that on an awareness scale of 0 to 100, the participants scored the average of 69 points in KAP towards osteoporosis. The results of the statistical modeling showed that the gender is a strong determinant of knowledge, attitude and practice of osteoporosis among university students. Conclusion: This study showed a satisfactory level of knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding osteoporosis. There was a poor scoring for some individual KAP items. It has been important to organize educational program to properly address these items that were under scored.