The study was undertaken to evaluate the impact of nutrition education on knowledge, attitude and practice levels of thirty volunteer osteoporotic subjects visiting orthopedic clinics of Davangere district of Karnataka state. Socioeconomic and nutritional status was assessed by standard procedures and nutrition education imparted on relevant aspects. A well-structured questionnaire of 15 statements with multiple answers was developed and used before and after one day counselling to determine knowledge, attitude and practice of the subjects. Hypertension was the common family medical history followed by diabetes mellitus and fractures. Absence of physical activities or exercises was evident. Rice was consumed on daily basis whereas ragi on weekly basis by maximum number of respondents. Grade I obesity was more prevalent among males (20%) than female (5%) whereas Grade II obesity was only observed in females (30%). Assessment of knowledge gain after nutrition education revealed that Per centage gain in knowledge was more among male subjects (54.8%) than female subjects (36.9%) and that of attitude for both the subjects was at a range of 35.6 to 36.5%. The per cent gain in practice was slightly higher among male subjects (19.3%) compared to female subjects (15.0%) The overall percentage gain of knowledge, attitude and practice for all subjects was 42.9 per cent, 37.4 per cent and 15.4 per cent respectively which was statistically significant (p<0.05) indicating the positive impact of nutrition education on KAP levels of the subjects.

Keyword: Osteoporosis; Nutrition education; KAP; Nutritional status; BMD.