Cultural Knowledge in Context – People Aged 50 Years and Over Make Sense of a First Fracture and Osteoporosis

Catch a Break (CaB) is a secondary fracture prevention program that uses medical understandings of osteoporosis to assess first fractures and determine appropriateness for secondary fracture prevention. In this study, we interviewed CaB program participants to identify the understandings that patients themselves used to make sense of first fractures and the osteoporosis suggestion as cause. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with female and male participants of the CaB program in Canada. An interpretive practice approach was used to analyze the data. A random sample of 20 individuals, 12 women, and eight men all aged 50 years and over participated. First fractures were produced as meaningful in the context of osteoporosis only for seniors of very advanced age, and for people of any age with poor nutrition. The trauma events that led to a first fracture were produced as meaningful only if perceived as accidents, and having an active lifestyle was produced as beneficial only for mental health and well-being unrelated to osteoporosis. Cultural knowledge shapes, but does not determine, how individuals make sense of their health and illness experiences. Risk prevention program designers should include patients on the design team and be more aware of the presumptive knowledge used to identify individuals at risk of disease.