Students, teachers and alumni “shake their bones” at a zumba class put on by nursing
students to prevent osteoporosis. The goal of the event was to raise awareness of the
disease in the community.  The Lion’s Roar / McKenzie DeSandro

Students, teachers and alumni shake their way to better bone health at the osteoporosis zumba class hosted by nursing students.

On Thursday Oct. 23, senior Emily Graham and her fellow classmates in the community health nursing course hosted a zumba class to boost awareness of osteoporosis.

“Our target population are people aged 18-24 because once you have osteoporosis, you can’t get rid of it, so the prime time to prevent osteoporosis is 18-24. That’s the only time in your life you can actually build up bone density,” said Graham.

The team of nursing students used social media because they felt it was the quickest way to reach their target population. 

“They’re trying to educate the young adult population using social media, health literacy objectives and they’ve done a great job,” said Robin Brou Hatheway, the instructor for the course. “They’ve put together a wonderful program. It seems like it’s going to be very effective. We’ve had a lot of followers of the social media platforms that they’ve used and I think they’ve met their goal.”

Upon entering, attendees took a pre-test to gauge their knowledge on the subject before listening to about 15 minutes of educational advice on osteoporosis.  The nursing students that hosted the course set up three information tables where they split into groups to educate attendees on causes, diet and different ways to prevent it. Attendees then took a post-test with similar material to see what they had learned. There was a 28% increase in overall scores between the pre-test and post-test. 

After furthering their knowledge of bone health, everyone attended an hour long zumba class led by one of the Pennington Center’s zumba instructors. 

Since osteoporosis can be prevented by weight bearing exercises, this was the perfect way to take preventative measures against the disorder and have fun while doing it. 

Once dancing was over, door prizes were given out. They were donated by different companies in Hammond and Baton Rouge. Prizes consisted of T-shirts, sunglasses, socks, water bottles and more.

“Most people don’t know about it until it’s already happened to them, so we want to teach people methods that you can do to reduce that. Such as increasing calcium and doing weight bearing exercises,” said senior nursing student Victoria Ulmer.

For more information on osteoporosis and what  Southeastern nursing students are doing to educate the community, visit the group’s Facebook page “Osteoferocious,” their Twitter  @_osteoferocious or their Instagram, @osteoferociouslions.