‘If it was osteoporosis, I would have really hurt myself.’ Ambiguity about osteoporosis and osteoporosis care despite a screening programme to educate fragility fracture patients

Abstract

Despite a standardized screening programme in which OP was addressed in fragility fracture patients, ambiguity about diagnosis, testing and treatment were described. Efforts to clarify information relayed to fracture patients about their condition and recommended care need to extend beyond the fracture clinic so that health care providers can promote long-term adherence to these recommendations.

Qualitative Insights from the Osteoporosis Research: A Narrative Review of the Literature

“…Understandings of bone health among Canadian patients with fractures in more clinical contexts have been extensively explored [26–29]. Patients do not connect underlying bone health to the resultant fractures, which are perceived as freak, traumatic accidents [26, 29].…”

“…Patients do not connect underlying bone health to the resultant fractures, which are perceived as freak, traumatic accidents [26, 29]. A conceptualization of fractures as freak events has been reported by other authors (e.g., [22, 30, 31]).…”

“…Patients with osteoporosis express considerable confusion and ambiguity regarding medication, dosages, and supplements [26, 41]. Troublingly, this can persist despite participating in a standardized osteoporosis screening program, where education, written instructions, and direct care referrals were received [26].…”

“…Troublingly, this can persist despite participating in a standardized osteoporosis screening program, where education, written instructions, and direct care referrals were received [26]. Many researchers have explored reasoning and attitudes underlying medication adherence.…”

“…Prolific researchers in the field, Sale and colleagues, ponder the utility of adherent/nonadherent labels given the fluid and adaptive negotiations undertaken by patients with respect to osteoporosis medication use [42]. Also of note is that while the asymptomatic nature of osteoporosis is highlighted as a cause for nonadherence, patients in these studies frequently recount pain [26, 34, 41, 50], which is often dismissed as nonosteoporotic by researchers, but may be an important factor to consider with respect to adherence. Indeed, pain is little explored in-depth in this literature, despite being of obvious salience to participants.…”