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Osteoporosis Study: Women Who Hate Doctors Missing
Care That Can Help
June 22, 2004 - Educational intervention can help
women improve their bone health and reduce their risk for osteoporosis
but researchers found an adamant minority of women whose beliefs about
health care and nutrition made them resistant to intervention and put
them at grave risk for developing the debilitating disease.
“There exists a vocal group of women who are very
anti-physician,” said Lori Turner, associate professor of health science
at the University of Arkansas and lead author of the study. “They think
doctors are evil, and medicine is poison — that even dairy is poison.”
Turner and Ches Jones, also an associate professor
of health science at UA, authored the study, “Osteoporosis Knowledge,
Attitudes and Behaviors of Women Participating in an Osteoporosis
Prevention Intervention.” Turner also designed the intervention program
within it. Research assistant Blake Perry contributed. Turner and Jones
presented their research at the 7th World Conference on Injury
Prevention and Safety Promotion held June 6-9 in Vienna, Austria.
“The goal was to see if we could increase the
participants’ knowledge and perhaps modify their behaviors and modify
their beliefs through intervention, and if so, this might be a good
model to use elsewhere,” Jones said.
The researchers found a high percentage of women in
one study initially had low bone density readings — but many improved
their bone health after participating in an osteoporosis prevention
intervention.
However, about 20 of the women actually had lower
bone density readings at the conclusion of the study, because they
didn’t change their behavior to include more bone-healthy food choices
and less risky behavior.
Most surprising to Turner was that these were
mostly educated women. Some of them had low initial bone density
readings but didn’t change their behaviors after being told of their low
readings. As a result, their readings dropped even lower upon follow-up,
showing a direct relationship between behavior and bone density.
According to Turner, some of these women were
adamantly opposed to going to a doctor, but would instead trust every
aspect of their health solely to the claims of health food store
products and practitioners of alternative medicine. The education
intervention included information to help consumers determine whether
such claims were true or false, but the information did not help the
women who did not use it.
“It was tough when we’re trying to help them,”
Turner said.
Turner and Jones’ study involved 342 women between
the ages of 30 and 64 years. The women were surveyed on their knowledge,
attitudes and behavioral risk factors relating to osteoporosis. They
then attended four classes where they gained information and knowledge
about the disease and what they could do to reduce their risk for it.
The classes were on osteoporosis risk factors, nutrition, supplements
and physical activity.
The women also underwent hip and spine bone mineral
density testing, followed by individual consultations.
“Out of the sample of 342, about 105 women had
below-normal readings,” Turner said. “We’re talking about middle-aged
women – that’s more than I’d expected out of a population that basically
has good health behaviors.”
When the 342 women were resurveyed after the
intervention, many showed increased consumption of dairy products,
calcium-rich foods and calcium supplements. Some had increased their
activity levels or changed behavior that put them at risk for
osteoporosis.
“There was a significant change for the better,”
Turner said.
She was pleasantly surprised by the overall level
of enthusiasm and participation among the women. Of the 369 who
initially signed up for the sample group, 342 of them, or 93 percent,
completed the program.
Turner noted that, in the intervention classes,
instructors emphasized the disfiguring aspect of osteoporosis as a way
to get the women’s attention.
“Especially with women, if a disease involves
disfigurement, it becomes more of a threat,” she said. “That’s why
breast cancer can be so scary, because it can be disfiguring.” |
