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Culturally Competent Osteoporosis Education Program Targets Asian Women

Culturally Competent Osteoporosis Education Program Targets Asian Women

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Richard Carmona’s first-ever report on the nation’s bone health, released last October, reveals that 10 million Americans over age 50 have osteoporosis and another 34 million are at risk for developing the condition. Asian American women are at particularly high risk of developing this bone-weakening disease, which can result in serious fractures of the hip, spine and wrist. According to the National Asian Women’s Health Organization (NAWHO), more than one-fifth of Asian American women suffer from osteoporosis and 65% of Asian American women have low bone mineral density, one of the major signs of the onset of the disease.

Many Asian American women, especially those who are recent immigrants to the U.S., face cultural and linguistic barriers to osteoporosis preventive education, screening and treatment. To help close this critical health care gap and raise postmenopausal Asian American women’s awareness of osteoporosis, NAWHO has created Living Healthy: The Asian American Osteoporosis Education Initiative. A key component of the program is the Living Healthy Implementation Kit, a comprehensive resource that can be used by health educators and community-based organizations to conduct culturally competent osteoporosis education seminars in Asian American communities.

Developed in partnership with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Osteoporosis and Related Bone Diseases~National Resource Center, Living Healthy was pilot-tested by three Asian American community organizations serving Chinese, Vietnamese and Laotian populations. The 92-page Implementation Kit is a step-by-step instruction manual for planning, implementing, teaching and evaluating a Living Healthy seminar. The extensive curriculum section of the kit contains culturally competent information about osteoporosis risk factors, prevention, screening and treatment.

NAWHO’s Living Healthy Implementation Kit is available to health professionals free of charge and can be downloaded from www.nawho.org/osteo.html or www.osteo.org/osteolinks.asp. In addition, the NIH Osteoporosis and Related Bone Diseases~National Resource Center offers other free culturally competent osteoporosis education materials for Asian women, including a fact sheet available in English, Cambodian, Chinese, Korean, Laotian and Vietnamese. The fact sheets can be ordered from NIH at (800) 624-2663 or downloaded from www.osteo.org/osteolinks.asp.