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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Med.
Sec. Geriatric Medicine
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2024.1485382
This article is part of the Research Topic Frailty- and Age-Associated Diseases: Possibilities For Intervention View all 10 articles

Osteoporosis: a problem still faulty addressed by the Romanian healthcare system. Results of a questionnaire survey of people aged 40 years and over

Provisionally accepted
Narcisa Jianu Narcisa Jianu 1*Valentina O. Buda Valentina O. Buda 1Denisa Căpățână Denisa Căpățână 1*Călin Muntean Călin Muntean 1*Teodor Nicolae Onea Teodor Nicolae Onea 2*Maria Anastasia Jivulescu Maria Anastasia Jivulescu 2Ana Teodor Ana Teodor 1*Mirabela Romanescu Mirabela Romanescu 1Lucreția Udrescu Lucreția Udrescu 1Vlad Groza Vlad Groza 2*Mihai Udrescu Mihai Udrescu 2Alina R. Buzatu Alina R. Buzatu 1*Cristina Adriana Dehelean Cristina Adriana Dehelean 1Minodora Andor Minodora Andor 1
  • 1 Victor Babes University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timisoara, Romania
  • 2 Politehnica University of Timișoara, Timișoara, Romania

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    We aimed to investigate the knowledge and awareness level of osteoporosis, its risk factors, the possible causes of underdiagnosis, as well as the preventive measures and lifestyle behavior of the Romanian population.A non-interventional, cross-sectional study was performed, consisting of an in-person survey, in 10 pharmacies located in both urban and rural settings in Romania. The survey was distributed to patients ≥40 years old. Results: Of 189 respondents, 78.8% were women, the majority age group being 60-69 (31.7%) and 50-59 (30.7%) years old and coming from urban areas (69.3%). Although 75.1% of participants declared knowing about osteoporosis, having a moderate level of knowledge, and women being more aware of the pathology, 77.2% have never performed a DXA test. Moreover, participants already diagnosed with osteoporosis did not show a better disease knowledge than those without a diagnosis. Nearly half of the respondents did not know that a family history of the disease increases the risk of developing it and 60% of them thought that symptoms may develop before a fracture occurs. The preventive strategies tend to be disregarded and thus, underused. Moreover, 42.85% of participants reported being diagnosed with osteoporosis, do not undergo treatment, although they are aware of the existence of effective strategies. The dataset was used to build a participant compatibility network. The network's clustering revealed six relevant communities, which are not correlated with questionnaire results but reflect the patterns of feature associations.Preventive and therapeutic osteoporosis education programs are urgently needed in the Romanian population to decrease disability and high mortality risks and thus, to improve the quality of life.

    Keywords: Antiresorptive medication, Underdiagnosed, knowledge, Awareness, prevention, Romanian primary care

    Received: 23 Aug 2024; Accepted: 09 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Jianu, Buda, Căpățână, Muntean, Nicolae Onea, Jivulescu, Teodor, Romanescu, Udrescu, Groza, Udrescu, Buzatu, Dehelean and Andor. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Narcisa Jianu, Victor Babes University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timisoara, Romania
    Denisa Căpățână, Victor Babes University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timisoara, Romania
    Călin Muntean, Victor Babes University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timisoara, Romania
    Teodor Nicolae Onea, Politehnica University of Timișoara, Timișoara, 300006, Romania
    Ana Teodor, Victor Babes University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timisoara, Romania
    Vlad Groza, Politehnica University of Timișoara, Timișoara, 300006, Romania
    Alina R. Buzatu, Victor Babes University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timisoara, Romania

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