To examine messages perceived by members of an osteoporosis (OP) patient group from various healthcare providers regarding bone health. We conducted a phenomenological (qualitative) study in members of an OP patient group who resided in Canada, had sustained a fragility fracture at 50+ years old, and were not taking antiresorptive medication at the time of that fracture. Participants were interviewed for approximately 1 h by telephone and responded to questions about visits to healthcare providers for their bone health and what was discussed during those visits. We analyzed the data guided by Giorgi's methodology. We interviewed 28 members (2 males, 26 females; 78 % response rate), aged 51-89 years old. Most participants perceived that their specialist was more interested than their primary care physician in bone health and took the time to discuss issues with them. Participants perceived very few messages from the fracture clinic and other providers. We found many instances where perceived messages within and across various healthcare providers were inconsistent, suggesting there is a need to raise awareness of bone health management guidelines to providers who treat fracture patients.
The publication of the first AMI report card in Canada stimulated quality of care initiatives at many Ontario hospitals. Inclusion of performance measures other than mortality in health care report cards may lead to greater acceptance and use by the medical community.
In the last decade, there have been a number of action plans published to highlight the importance of preventing osteoporosis and related fractures. In the province of Ontario Canada, the Ministry of Health provided funding for the Ontario Osteoporosis Strategy. The goal is to reduce morbidity, mortality, and costs from osteoporosis and related fractures through an integrated and comprehensive approach aimed at health promotion and disease management. This paper describes the components of the Ontario Osteoporosis Strategy and progress on implementation efforts as of March 2009. There are five main components: health promotion; bone mineral density testing, access, and quality; postfracture care; professional education; and research and evaluation. Responsibility for implementation of the initiatives within the components is shared across a number of professional and patient organizations and academic teaching hospitals with osteoporosis researchers. The lessons learned from each phase of the development, implementation, and evaluation of the Ontario Osteoporosis Strategy provides a tremendous opportunity to inform other jurisdictions embarking on implementing similar large-scale bone health initiatives.
Members of an OP patient group described effective consumer behaviours that could be incorporated as skill sets in post-fracture interventions to improve bone health.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.