Study designs of evaluations included in the review
Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) comparing an educational intervention with standard treatment, placebo or no intervention.
Specific interventions included in the review
Multiple risk factor interventions comprising a combination of two or more components e.g. education on osteoporosis, hormone replacement therapy (HRT), nutrition, exercise, genito-urinary problems, making health care decisions. Studies that focused on an exercise, pharmaceutical or nutritional component without reference to an educational component were excluded.
Participants included in the review
Healthy post-menopausal women with untreated osteoporosis or significant osteopenia requiring health care intervention. Most of the women included in the review were aged 50-75 years.
Outcomes assessed in the review
All outcome measures were included, with emphasis on the following: knowledge about osteoporosis and related issues, long term continuance of health lifestyle changes and preventive therapy, ability to make health care decisions, changes in fitness, weight, balance, blood pressure (BP), lipid profile, quality of life, psychological status, genito-urinary symptoms, and changes in risk factor prevalence or morbidity
How were decisions on the relevance of primary studies made?
All abstracts were examined by one reviewer and obviously irrelevant articles discarded. The remaining abstracts were then examined independently by two reviewers and full paper copies were obtained if either reviewer thought that the article might be relevant. The same two reviewers made the final decision about study inclusion after reading full paper copies of articles.