Exploring the effects of different ways of communicating fracture risk and treatment benefits would influence patients' beliefs of risk of fracture and osteoporosis treatment to reduce their fracture risk.

The effect of different approaches to communicating fracture risk to adults on their perceived risk of osteoporotic fracture and hip fracture at which treatment would be considered.

Status

Not yet recruiting

Phases

Unknown

Study type

Interventional

Source

ANZCTR

Registry ID

ACTRN12613001081707

Enrollment

200

Registered

2013-09-26

Start date

2013-10-03

Completion date

Unknown

Last updated

2020-01-13

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

None listed

Brief summary

Osteoporosis (thin bones) is a common disorder in New Zealand. Having thin bones increases the chance that a fracture (broken bone) will occur. Prevention of fracture is currently best achieved by identifying those people at higher risk of fracture and treating them with medications that are known to reduce fracture risk. Effective communication of information about risk is therefore very important in managing bone health. There are different ways of presenting information about risk- for example, risk can be framed positively (you have a 5% chance of a particular outcome) or negatively (you have a 95% chance of NOT having that outcome), or can be presented using any of several numerical methods. Our study aims to explore the presenting risk in different ways on people's attitudes to, and beliefs about, bone health.

Interventions

Participants will complete a questionnaire regarding clinical history, have their bone density measured, and then complete a short questionnaire exploring their beliefs about their risk of fracture and the benefits they might obtain from treatment. Their absolute risk of osteoporotic fracture and hip fracture within the next 5 years will be calculated. Participants will then be randomised to receive one of four different presentations of their absolute risk, and the likely benefits they could expect from osteoporosis treatment (option 1: framed as the chance of having an event, option 2: the chance of not having an event, option 3: the number needed to treat to prevent an event, and option 4: the number needed to treat to prevent an event, with presentation of number treated without benefit). Participants will then complete a short questionnaire (immediately and at 3 months) exploring whether the knowledge of their absolute risk of fracture has influenced their beliefs about their personal risk of fracture, their willingness to take treatment, and the benefits of treament. All the questionnaires are administered as a written information.

Study design

Allocation

Randomised controlled trial

Intervention model

Parallel

Primary purpose

Treatment

Masking

Open (masking not used)

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

All

Age

60 Years to 100 Years

Healthy volunteers

Yes

Inclusion criteria

Age >60y (because the Garvan absolute fracture risk calculator does not estimate fracture risk for younger participants).

Exclusion criteria

Patients taking antiresorptive treatment for osteoporosis. Unable to complete the questionnaires, for language or cognitive reasons

Outcome results