Osteoporosis knows no national boundaries. The European Union can share resources and information to help women become aware of their risk and take action to reduce it.
- Set time-based, achievable targets for reducing the incidence and cost of fractures among olde women.
- Raise awarenes among women, health care professionals and policymakers throughout Europe about the human and economic costs of osteoporosis-related fractures.
- Develop European standard for preventive, diagnostic and treatment strategies.
- Develop coordinated funding strategies to support education, prevention, screening, treatment and research.
- Pool information on effective prevention strategies
- Develop and coordinate guidelines on criteria for densitometry screening.
- Make bone densitometry testing available, and reimbursable by health insurance systems, for women at risk
- Develop and coordinate guidelines on treatment.
- Share data on treatment outcomes.
- Share information on the most effective ways to provide psychological help and social support to osteoporosis patients.
- Coordinate data on incidence and cost for international comparisons.
- Encourage women to take responsibility for their bone health from an early age.
- Promote positive lifestyle habits from childhood on, particularly regarding the role of healthy diet and regular, weight-bearing exercise.
- Encourage women to initiate discussion of osteoporosis with their health care professionals, particularly preventive strategies.
- Promote lifestyle changes that prevent or mitigate the devastating effects of osteoporosis.
- Encourage nutrition education, particularly about calcium and vitamin D.
- Support programmes that enable people to stop smoking and to keep their alcohol consumption withinsensible limits
- Promote regular, consistent weight-bearing exercise programmes for women of every age.
- Educate health care professionals about osteoporosis.
- Ensure that general practitioners are knowledgeable about osteoporosis so that they may educated their female patients on how to prevent its effects and refer them for testing as appropriate.
- Promote understanding of oscopmois by health educators and other professionals.
- Develop guidelines for coordinated care among various medical and social service professionals.
- Ensure that European medical and nursing schools train students in the prevention, recognition and management of osteoporosis.
- Strengthen the role of patient support groups.
- Encourage patient groups to provide information, help and psychosocial support for women with osteoporosis and their families.
- Support patient groups it their effort to disseminate up-to-date information on the disorder to patients and their families, thereby raising awareness of the disease among the general public, health care professions, policy-makers and politicians.
- Fund further research.
- Investigate the most effective interventions at every age level from childhood to old age – and how to gain compliance.
- Evaluate the cost-effectiveness of bone density testing.
- Improve identification and management of high-risk groups.
- Investigate effective treatments alone and in combination.
- Study the best methods of psychosocial intervention.
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