The gaps between patient and physician understanding of the emotional and physical impact of osteoporosis

Summary A multinational survey was conducted to evaluate the gaps between patients and physicians understanding of osteoporosis. The International Osteoporosis Foundation recommends the creation of community-wide patient support programmes to increase prevention and treatment awareness of osteoporosis. Introduction Osteoporosis is often undiagnosed and untreated, leaving millions of people at risk of debilitating fractures. A survey was designed to investigate any gaps that may exist between physician and patient knowledge of osteoporosis, understand barriers to patient adherence and identify ways to address unmet needs and improve communications. Methods Telephone interviews were conducted with patients (n=844) and physicians (n=837) in 13 countries in June/July 2009. Patients were women with postmenopausal osteoporosis currently taking (or in the past 2 years) prescribed medication. Physicians had experience in treating osteoporotic patients, which included only general practitioners who saw ≥10 (exception: in Hungary ≥5) and specialists who saw ≥20 patients with osteoporosis per month. Results Physicians consistently underestimated their patients’ adherence to treatment and beliefs on the impact of osteoporosis on their quality-of-life. Physicians underestimated how many patients worry about breaking a bone (51% vs 79%), as well as patient concerns about declines in activity levels (40% vs 70%), becoming dependent on others (30% vs 60%) and not being able to work for longer (30% vs 57%). Patients believed the most credible osteoporosis information was from specialists (94%). Patients (75%) would like easy to understand materials and 49% would welcome inter-patient discussions of their R. Rizzoli (*) Division of Bone Diseases, Department of Rehabilitation and Geriatrics, Geneva University Hospitals and Faculty of Medicine, Geneva, Switzerland e-mail: [email protected] M. L. Brandi Department of Internal Medicine, University of Florence, Florence, Italy K. Dreinhöfer Center for Sport Science and Sport Medicine (CSSB) and Center for Musculoskeletal Surgery (CMSC), Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany K. Dreinhöfer Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology, Medical Park Berlin, Humboldtmühle, Berlin, Germany T. Thomas Service de Rhumatologie, INSERM U890, CHU de St-Etienne, St-Etienne, France D. A. Wahl International Osteoporosis Foundation, Nyon, Switzerland C. Cooper MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, Southampton General Hospital, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK C. Cooper NIHR Musculoskeletal Biomedical Research Unit, Institute of Musculoskeletal Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK Arch Osteoporos (2010) 5:145–153 DOI 10.1007/s11657-010-0049-1