Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences. Ahvaz. IR Iran.Background and Aim:
Osteoporosis is the fourth main enemy human fracture treatment andrehabilitation costs associated with large scale economic damage, which is necessity ofpreventive strategies in this category is important. Principle of prevention, focus on changingattitudes, lifestyles and daily habits of individuals with regard to the process of osteoporosisprevalence in women. Due to a series of years lost due to osteoporosis and the role of teachersin education and prevention of diseases in society, this study aimed to assess the knowledgeknowledgeof female teachers in the field of risk factors was performed in Ahvaz.Material and Methods: In this cross-sectional analytic descriptive study among four areas ofeducation, one area in which the schools were randomly selected from the three classes’elementary, middle and high schools are divided into clusters were selected from each classquestionnaires were distributed among the members’ of the cluster. The population of whichincluded female teachers of Ahwaz city and its sample size, based on a pilot study, consisted385 female teachers. In order to collect data from a questionnaire containing 20 questionsrelated to teachers' knowledge of risk factors for osteoporosis were used. After collecting data,for analyses descriptive statistics, T-test and chi-square test were used by SPSS softwareversion 19. The conventional p-value of ≤ 0.05 was considered as overall significant level.Results: The mean age of teachers were 39.80±7.60 years (Minimum=24, Maximum=65),more individuals (82.4%) married and 68.1% has a bachelor's degree, 50.45% of teachers hadawareness of predisposing factors for osteoporosis, 61.31% from source of calcium to preventosteoporosis, 42.63% from increased risk factors, 37.81% from loss of bone density's time,28.52% osteoporosis treatment methods. 45.73% known the relationship between fracturesand osteoporosis and20.10%ofappropriate physical activity to prevent of osteoporosis. Therewas no significant difference between teacher’s knowledge with teachers ' personalcharacteristics. (P= 0.05)Conclusions: The results showed that teachers had not very good awareness about preventionof osteoporosis. That confirms the need for more education on the prevention of osteoporosis.It seems that teachers in this study did not have a sufficient level of knowledge and it isnecessary to take further measures in this area. What is certain, besides education counselingcan be effective in raising the level of knowledge. Information and training sessions forteachers can be raised and thus they also provide students within formation and so theinformation society will go up.