KNOWLEDGE OF RADIATION EXPOSURE IN COMMON RADIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS: A COMPARISON BETWEEN NON RADIOLOGIST AND RADIOLOGIST

Introduction: Radiological examinations play an important role in daily medical practice in the hospital setting, patients are not adequately informed about the radiation dose they are exposed to when undergoing a radiological examination1-3. This may be partly explained by inadequate knowledge among referring doctors concerning the radiation dose of commonly performed examination regardless of years of clinical experience4-6. However to date limited studies have been performed to assess knowledge among the radiologists or to compare the results with non radiologist. Aims and objectives: To assess knowledge about the radiation dosage of common performed radiological examinations among non radiologist and compare that with radiologist. Are radiologists and non-radiologists equally aware about the radiation hazards? Material and methods: This is prospective multiple choice questionnaire based study, will be conducted at Peerless Hospital & B.K Roy Research Centre Kolkata and other Hospitals of Kolkata .The hospitals are multi-speciality hospitals that provides Cardio Department, CTVS Department, ENT Department, Gastro Department, Medicine Department, Nephrology Department, Neuro. Department, Orthopaedics Department, Paediatrics Department, Plastic Surgery Department, Surgery Department, Urology Department, paediatric and emergency department .Questionnaires will be distributed by both hard copies and by email to each doctor in these departments. Sample Size: .For the proposal of this study sample size was one hundred and fifty. Inclusion Criteria: Doctors working in Radiology department, Cardio Department, CTVS Department, ENT Department Gastro Department, House Officer, Medicine Department, MO/RMO, Nephrology Department, Neruro. department, Orthopaedics Department, Paediatrics Department, Plastic Surgery Department, Surgery Department, Urology Department and Doctors of Emergency department in Peerless Hospital Kolkata and other hospitals in Kolkata. Exclusion Criteria: Undergraduate medical trainees. Doctors working in obstetrics. Statistical analysis: For statistical analysis data were entered into a Microsoft excel spreadsheet and then analyzed by SPSS (version 25.0 SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) and GraphPad Prism version 5. Data had been summarized as mean and standard deviation for numerical variables and count and percentages for categorical variables. A chi-squared test (χ2 test) was any statistical hypothesis test wherein the sampling distribution of the test statistic is a chi-squared distribution when the null hypothesis is true. Without other qualification, 'chi-squared test' often is used as short for Pearson's chi-squared test. Unpaired proportions were compared by Chi-square test or Fischer?s exact test, as appropriate. p-value ≤ 0.05 was considered for statistically significant. Results: We found that the knowledge of radiation dose of investigation is significantly poor in non radiologist. Our study also showed that knowledge of radiation dose of investigation is generally inadequate among radiologists. It was found that young practitioners among non radiologist as well as radiologist have better knowledge of radiation dose of investigation. Knowledge and awareness of the radiation hazards of radiological examinations can be raised among emergency physicians and other medical professionals as a part of continuous medical education programmes. Knowledge of radiation doses of investigation is generally inadequate among radiologists, and particularly poor in non-radiologist. Underestimation of radiation doses may expose patients to increasing radiological investigation and expose to radiation hazards. Conclusion: Efforts to educate medical professional about radiation exposure and hazard are needed to ensure that medicinal professional are appropriately weighing the risks and benefits of medical imaging and to ensure high-quality, patient-centered care.