knowledge, attitude and preventive practice of women concerning osteoporosis

background: to determine the knowledge, attitude and preventive practice of women above 45 years old. methods: a total of 770 households in kerman (southern iran) were selected for inclusion in the study using cluster sam pling from april through august 2005. the interview schedule consisted of 4 parts including questions about knowledge, atti tude and practice (kap) and also demographic questions. the average score for kap was 9.3 out of 21, 2.6 out of 5 and 1.5 out of 6, respectively. results: adequate osteoprotective exercise and sufficient calcium intake were found in 3.8% and 5.5% of subjects, respec tively. a significant relationship between the score of preventive practice and all the following parameters was found: level of education, hearing about osteoporosis, knowledge score, perceived barrier to preventive actions and perceived serious ness of osteoporosis. conclusion: considering the iranian women’s inaccurate or insufficient knowledge and their negative attitude to the preven tive actions and their weak practice in case of prevention, it is the responsibility of health policymakers and medi cal associations to plan for osteoporosis education and prevention initiatives.