Make no bones about it, the Dubbo Osteoporosis Epidemiology Study is titanium-strong after 20 years.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
And people like Dubbo woman Babette Davis are the calcium in the bones of the study, a Garvan Institute endeavour.
On Friday the institute honoured Mrs Davis as its first participant to make a 10th visit.
Mrs Davis was one of 3600 Dubbo residents who started with the study in 1989 to shed light on a “silent killer”.
The Dubbo study has contributed major changes to science’s understanding of osteoporosis in women and men, including risk of fracture, impact on quality of life, and even survival.
That’s something of which Mrs Davis is “proud to be part”.
“It’s no effort and it’s completely interesting,” Mrs Davis said.
Always willing to visit the office, Mrs Davis was pleasantly surprised last week when she received a bouquet of flowers from nurse manager Janet Watters as the first 10th-timer.
“What we’ve achieved here is monumental,” Ms Watters said.
“I look forward to it continuing for another 20 years.”
Six clients a day aged 20 to 95 years visit the study to share their bodies’ secrets with the study.
“It’s never dull here,” Ms Watters said.
“The participants are wonderful, they know what they’re achieving for their descendants and mankind.”
Nine hundred of the original participants are still lining up for their tests - a new one each time - and now the institute also conducts a family study across generations and a study of younger people.
The study has found that one in two women and one in three men aged over 60 will have a fracture due to osteoporosis and, with an ageing population, the total number of sufferers is increasing.
Those statistics reinforce the importance of calcium to everyone’s diet, according to Ms Watters.
The Dubbo study is second only to the Framingham Study in the USA that began in 1948 and Ms Watters has the record in her sights.
faye.wheeler@ruralpress.com
