Assessment of the Awareness of Radiology Residents About Ionizing Radiations and Their Risks of Educational Hospitals, Kermanshah, Iran

Although many radiological examinations are requested daily to aid clinical diagnosis by the referring physician, it should be kept in mind that ionizing radiation has adverse biological effects on the life of living organisms, which may vary in individuals depending on the dose and duration of exposure. Therefore, radiologists and their assistants should have comprehensive information about ionizing radiation.

In this descriptive cross-sectional study, all the radiology residents (41) were included in the study. The questionnaire consisted of two parts, the first part including of demographic information and part 2 includes 21 questions about the effective dose created by a chest X-ray, the approximate effective dose from various imaging examines, as well as the awareness of the risks of brain, abdominal CT scans.

The results showed that out of 41 residents, 56.1% were male. Based on these results, 19.5% were aware of the approximate effective dose received by a patient on PA chest X-ray. Also, knowledge of some X-ray absorptiometry parameters based on chest X-ray in PA position are: 12.2% abdominal CT scan, 17.1% and 2.4% brain and chest CT scan respectively. In this study the radiology resident’s awareness about dangers of ionizing radiation and the likelihood of cancer were evaluated in 31% and 48.8% of brain and abdominal CT scan, respectively.

According to the findings, awareness of radiology residents in Kermanshah university of medical sciences is at an inappropriate level. Therefore, training is needed to raise the awareness of radiology residents by conducting several workshops.