Design and Implementation of Educational Interventions to Empower Female Students to Prevent Osteoporosis

Introduction: Osteoporosis is a chronic disease which influences the life of people considerably, especially the women. Most women are not aware that osteoporosis is preventable. Although there is a higher risk of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women, but bone loss can begin at the age of 35. This research was conducted to design and implement educational interventions to empower female students to prevent osteoporosis. Methods: This interventional study was a controlled trial. This study was conducted on female students of Shahrekord Islamic Azad University. A two-stage stratified random sampling was used for recruiting samples. The sample size was set at 150 (75 interventions and 75 controls). A demographic questionnaire and a self-made questionnaire of self-empowerment for the prevention of osteoporosis were used to collect information. Data were collected before the intervention and three months after the intervention. The educational intervention was conducted in two months with eight education sessions. For statistical analyses, the SPSS software version 23 was used. Results: The mean age of the intervention group was 20.69 ± 2.24, and the control group was 20.29 ± 2.04, besides, there was no significant difference between the two groups (P= 0.26). The test indicates a significant difference in mean variance of the intervention group compared to mean variance of the control group in knowledge (P< 0.001), attitude (P< 0.001) and self-efficacy (P= 0.006). The difference in mean variance of the intervention group compared to the mean variance of the control group was not significant in life skills (P= 0.23). Conclusion: The results generally reflect the effect of educational interventions in improving the abilities of female students to prevent osteoporosis. It is suggested to design and implement educational programs to empower women to prevent osteoporosis.