Volume 27, Issue 133, March 2023

Physician knowledge of radiation exposure and risk in medical imaging in Al-Qunfudha region

Alaa Jameel A Albarakati¹, Medhat Taha^2,3♦, Hassan Alsuhabi⁴, Mohammed salah almoiedy⁵, Fatmah Hussein Alshardy⁶, Talal Alnaemi⁷, Abdulaziz Zaid Mohammed Alhayli⁸, Zahra Aqeel Ibrahim Alzubaidi⁸, Amal Abdulmalik Zaid Alrizqi⁸, Hatim abdulmalik zaid alrizqi⁸, Raghad Saleh Abdullah Alqarni⁸

¹Surgery Department, College of Medicine, Al-Qunfudah Branch, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia
²Department of Anatomy, Al-Qunfudah Medical College, Umm Al-Qura University, Al-Qunfudhah, Saudi Arabia
³Department of Anatomy and Embryology, Faculty of Medicine, Mansoura University, Egypt
⁴Department of Mathematics, Al-Qunfudah University College, Umm Al-Qura University, Mecca, Saudi Arabia
⁵Department of Radiology, Armed Force Hospital, Southern Region, Saudi Arabia
⁶Department of Radiology, South Al-Qunfudah General Hospital, Al-Qunfudhah, Saudi Arabia
⁷Department of Radiology, Al-Qunfudah General Hospital, Al-Qunfudhah, Saudi Arabia
⁸Al-Qunfudah Medical College, Umm Al Qura University, Al-Qunfudhah, Saudi Arabia

^♦Corresponding author
Department of Anatomy, Al-Qunfudah Medical College, Umm Al-Qura University, Al-Qunfudhah, Saudi Arabia and Department of Anatomy and Embryology, Faculty of Medicine, Mansoura University, Mansoura, 35516 Egypt

ABSTRACT

Background: Radiation is a recognized and essential component of medical practice, X-rays and radiological procedures related to their use are becoming important diagnostic and therapeutic tools in medicine. Participants and Methods: A cross sectional observational study was conducted in Al- Qunfudhah Saudi Arabia from November 2022-January 2023 on 189 of the 5^th, 6^th year medical students, medical interns and residents' males, females at three governmental hospitals: Al- Qunfudhah general hospital, south Al-Qunfudhah general hospital and Al-Mudhaylif general hospital. Data was collected using an electronic form of self-administered questionnaire. Results: The prevalence of poor, fair and good knowledge about radiation exposure and risk in medical imaging among the participants was 82%, 17% and 1% respectively. 77% reported that MRI is a non-ionizing radiation, 63% classified mammography as ionizing radiation and 52% reported Uranium as the biggest source of radiation in daily life. About 65% reported that the most health risk caused by radiation exposure was cancer and 71.5% agreed that leukemia result from large radiation exposures. Only 29% reported that the amount of radiation dose induced cataract is 2.5 Gy, 33.5% reported gray is the unit of the equivalent dose and 28.5% reported the annual recommended dose to the whole body is 50 mSv (5rem). 37% of the medical staffs knows the ALARA principle, 35.5% of them aware about the radiation exposure hazards papers and 36% of them knows carcinogenic medical X-rays. Conclusion: A low level of knowledge about radiation exposure and risk was found among participants.

Keywords: Ionizing radiations, hazards, knowledge, physicians, Al-Qunfudhah

Medical Science, 2023, 27, e160ms2936

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.54905/disssi/v27i133/e160ms2936

Published: 20 March 2023