Osteoporosis is a challenging health condition that affects one’s musculoskeletal functionality. According to Falkner and Green (2018), osteoporosis is a complexity characterized by the bones’ higher exposure to skeletal fragility and fractures. There exists a variety of risk factors that contribute to the development of osteoporosis, including genetic predisposition to the disease, eating disorders leading to low BMI indexes, such as anorexia and bulimia, steroid use, substance, and tobacco abuse, inactivity, adjunct health complexities, and rheumatoid arthritis (National Health Service [NHS], 2019). Another common risk factor for osteoporosis is gender, as women are statistically more likely to develop this disease over the years (Okamura et al., 2020). Such a regularity exists due to the fact that bone strength is highly dependent on one’s hormonal function, and menopause in women creates a disruption in estrogen release, increasing their risk of osteoporosis (NHS, 2019).
The nursing intervention and management of the disease are critical. With at least ten million people over the age of fifty struggling with osteoporosis in the US, nurses are to make sure the patients have access to rehabilitation and assistance resources (Clynes et al., 2020). The nurses are responsible for both the medical and nursing management of the patient. Hence, nurses need to conduct a physical assessment of the patient on the matter of current risks and struggles imposed by the disease and secure assistance and education on physical activity, weight management, and diet (Porter et al., 2021). Moreover, since this disease is common among older adults, nurses need to make sure they implement fall prevention strategies, as osteoporosis is correlated with this issue. In essence, nurses should assess the extent to which osteoporosis disrupts one’s daily routine and minimize this disruption through education, occupational therapy, assistance, or medication.
References
Clynes, M. A., Harvey, N. C., Curtis, E. M., Fuggle, N. R., Dennison, E. M., & Cooper, C. (2020). The epidemiology of osteoporosis. British Medical Bulletin, 133(1), 105-117.
Falkner, A. & Green, S. Z. (2018). Musculoskeletal, metabolism, and multisystem complexities. In Pathophysiology clinical applications for client health (Grand Canyon University, E-book). Web.
National Health Service. (2019). Osteoporosis: Causes. Web.
Okamura, H., Ishikawa, K., Kudo, Y., Matsuoka, A., Maruyama, H., Emori, H., Yamamura, R., Hayakawa, C., Tani, S., Tsuchiya, K., Shirahata, T., Toyone, T., Nagai, T. & Inagaki, K. (2020). Risk factors predicting osteosarcopenia in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis: A retrospective study. Plos One, 15(8). Web.
Porter, J. L., Varacallo, M., & Castano, M. (2021). Osteoporosis (nursing). In StatPearls (StatPearls Publishing, E-book). Web.