ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to access the knowledge and attitude of osteoporosis risk factors and preventive practices among women of reproductive age in Aba North Local Government Area, Abia State. This study employed a descriptive cross sectional study of selected 204 women using a multi stage sampling technique. Ethical approval and informed consent was obtained from accredited ethics institution and respondents respectively. A structured questionnaire was used to obtain information on the respondent’s relevant characteristics. All analysis (descriptive and inferential statistics) were obtained using IBM SPSS. Results revealed the respondents were predominantly between 15-25 (73%) and 26-35 (18.1%).The result revealed that the overall knowledge score 52.0% showing good knowledge which is in line with a study that was carried out by Khan et al., 2014. Majority of the respondents agreed that osteoporosis is preventable with overall attitude score of 50.5% showing that the respondents have good attitude towards osteoporosis; which reveals a good attitude of respondents towards osteoporosis risk factors with 33.8% engage in exercise more than 2hours every day. The respondents have good practice with 91.7% do not smoke cigarettes or take tobacco and 32.8% tho consume alcohol but occasionally. Majority of the respondents  44.6% daily consumes whole grain while 6.4%   rarely consumes less green leafy vegetables and Finally, greater percentage of the respondents consumes citrus, nuts and seeds occasionally which is a major staple in Nigeria and show a good source of food in the prevention of osteoporosis, which are calcium rich foods.