Kuwait holds Osteoporosis Day with an ‘awareness campaign’

Commonly occurs in hip, wrist or spine

By Mohammad Al-Kanderi

KUWAIT CITY, Oct 20, (KUNA): Kuwaiti specialists stressed the importance Friday on increasing knowledge and awereness regarding osteoporosis among people in Kuwait of all ages.

The specialists described the illness in a statement to KUNA, marking World Osteoporosis Day 2018, which was due on Saturday, noting that the illness is having a negative impact on the health and well-being of the individual as it occurs and develops over the years and may lead to fractures in bone.

The specialists added that osteoporosis causes bones to become weak and brittle, so brittle that a fall or even mild stresses like bending over or coughing can cause a fracture.

Osteoporosis-related fractures most commonly occur in the hip, wrist or spine.

Dr Nadia Al-Ali President of the Kuwait Osteoporosis Society, also a Consultant Endocrinology said every year osteoporosis is a serious silent illness that affect postmenopausal women and men over 50 years and leads to deterioration in density and strength, leading to fractures.

Al-Ali revealed that the proportion of osteoporotic fractures exceeds 8.9 million cases annually.

“It is estimated that there is a fracture resulting from osteoporosis occurring every three seconds in the world,” said Al-Ali, adding one out of three women and one in five men will be exposed after the age of 50 to break through the rest of their lives.

For his part, the specialist for internal medicine Dr Adel Reza said osteoporosis has no obvious symptoms for causing a gradual bone loss.

The Kuwait Osteoporosis Society (KOPS) celebrates the World Osteoporosis Day every year with a public educational event.

This year’s event took place in the Avenues Mall on Saturday, Oct 20, 2018.

The event was attended by the Minister of Health, Sheikh Dr Basel Hamoud Al-Sabah and the Honorary President of KOPS, Sheikha Dr Souad Mohammad Al-Sabah and covered by local media.

The event was also sponsored by the Avenues Mall, Amgen Pharmaceuticals, Lilly Pharmaceuticals and the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS).

The event included several services dedicated to increase the knowledge and awareness of osteoporosis among the people in Kuwait in all age groups.

Around the event location, there was artwork and infographics that showed crucial information about osteoporosis for the public.