Ionizing Radiation among Saudi Females : Awareness and Staff Efforts

Abstract

Background: Radio-diagnostics has become widespread nowadays for identification of diseases, however, a lot of patients, especially females of reproductive age lack awareness of risk factors involved with ionizing radiations. This study aimed to assess the awareness regarding the risk of radiation exposure to female patients and evaluation of the medical staffs' efforts to exclude pregnancy prior to sending patients for radiology examination. Methods: Three-part questionnaires were used for evaluation of reproductive aged female patients who were undergoing investigations with ionizing radiations in January 2017 at Radiology Department in King Abdul-Aziz University Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Results: 43.7%, 65.3%, and 89.6% of physicians, radiologists and receptionists respectively, ask about pregnancy while only a few of them asked about possibility of pregnancy and the first day in last menstrual cycle of the patient. Overall, 91 % and 75.2% of patients estimated the risk of cancer from chest radiography and CT respectively; being very small. However, 76.6% of patients correctly thought that CT gave more amounts of radiation than X-rays and 61.3% of patients agreed that it is more important for their physician to diagnose their condition with CT than to worry about the radiation exposure. Conclusion: These data suggests that females have incomplete understanding about risks associate with radiations, in addition to which most of clinical practitioners also do not ask about the possibility of pregnancy which puts patients at a greater risk.