The effect of osteoporosis knowledge levels and risk factors on osteoporosis disease in the elderly living in iraq

Osteoporosis represents one of the main problems that influence, especially aging people. Therefore, many healthy societies and organizations are striving to find essential solutions to reduce the development of this disease. Restricting risk factors and developing patients' knowledge about this disease is one of the most important objectives to limit its spread and growth. This study was conducted to determine the risk factors for osteoporosis and the effect of osteoporosis knowledge levels on the development of osteoporosis in the elderly population in Iraq. A descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted on elder admission patients in teaching hospitals in Al-Hilla Center Babylon Governorate in Iraq. The study included 275 elderly adults. Ethical committee approval from the Babylon Health Department in Iraq (28/12/2021-79), institutional permission (12/12/2021-1231), and ethical committee approval from the Çankiri Karatekin University (17.03.2022-25) were obtained before conducting the study. For the data collection, Data Collection Form for Elderly Patients and Osteoporosis Knowledge Tool Assessment (OKAT) were used. The results revealed that the average age of the participants was 70.97. 140 (50.9%) of the participants were women. According to Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) results, the number of patients with normal bone mineral density (BMD) values were 120 (43.6%). The number of patients with a good income status was 138 (50.2%). Recently, the most common exercise type of patients was walking, with 211 (76.7%) patients, in addition, for women (p=0.011), menopausal age was 56-65 patients (p=0.015), they were cycling and fitness patients (p=0.021), regularly exercising since their youth (p=0.004) and smokers (p=0.011). It was determined that the osteoporosis knowledge level of patients <0.001) and those who consume milk and dairy products every day (p=0.031) were statistically significantly higher. It has been determined that the elderly in Iraq have moderate osteoporosis. In our study, the high prevalence of osteoporosis in Iraqi elderly people was determined by coffee consumption (p<0.001), educational status (p<0.001), chronic disease (p<0.001), walking as an exercise (p=0.016), a height greater than 3 cm compared to youth, shortening (p<0.001), smoking status (p=0.046), consuming milk and dairy products every day (p=0.024), taking cortisone treatment for more than 3 months (p<0.001). Accordingly, it is recommended to identify osteoporosis risk factors, take necessary precautions against those that can be prevented from these risk factors, and provide training on osteoporosis in order to increase the osteoporosis knowledge level of the elderly population.