BACKGROUND
Radiology now plays a major role to diagnose, monitoring, and management of several diseases; numerous diagnostic and interventional radiology procedures involve exposure to ionizing radiation. Radiology now plays a major role to diagnose, monitoring, and management of several diseases; numerous diagnostic and interventional radiology procedures involve exposure to ionizing radiation.
OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to discover and compare the awareness level of radiation doses, protection issues, and risks among radiology staff in Jeddah hospitals.
METHODS
A cross-sectional survey containing 25 questions on personal information and various aspects of radiation exposure doses and risks was designed using an online survey tool and the link was emailed to all radiology staff in eight tertiary hospitals in Jeddah. The authors were excluded from the study. A P-value of < .05 was used to identify statistical significance. All analyses were performed using SPSS, version 21.
RESULTS
Out of 156 participants the majority 151 (96.8%) had poor knowledge score, where the mean scores were 2.4±1.3 for doses knowledge, 2.1±1.1for cancer risks knowledge, 2.3±0.6 for general information, and 6.7±1.9 for the total score. Only 34.6% of the participants were aware of the dosage of a single-view chest x-ray, and 9.0% chose the right answer for the approximate effective dose received by a patient in a two-view. 42.9% were able to know the correct dose of CT abdomen single phase. There is a significant underestimation of cancer risk of CT studies especially for CT abdomen where only 23.7% knew the right risk. A p-value of <0.05 was used to identify statistical significance. No significant difference of knowledge score was detected regarding gender (P =.2) or work position (P=.66).
CONCLUSIONS
Our survey results show considerable inadequate knowledge in all groups without exception. We recommended a conscientious effort to deliver more solid education and obtain more knowledge in these matters and providing periodic training courses to teach how to minimize the dose of radiation and to avoid risk related.
CLINICALTRIAL
not applicable
Corrigendum to “A multicenter study of radiation doses to the eye lenses of medical staff performing non-vascular imaging and interventional radiology procedures in Japan” [Physica Medica 74 (2020) 83–91]