Radiation Safety Knowledge and Practice Amongst Doctors in a Teaching Hospital in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria
Article Sidebar
:
Main Article Content
Abstract
It is important that doctors of the various specialties in a health facility requesting for radiological examinations are knowledgeable about the effect of ionizing radiation. When referring doctors know the amount of radiation their patients receive there will be justification for such investigations in line with the guiding principle of radiation protection – As Low As Reasonably Achievable (ALARA) - to minimize risk to the patient. The objective of this study is to assess the knowledge and practice of radiation protection and safety amongst doctors in a Teaching Hospital in the Niger Delta, Nigeria. This is a cross-sectional descriptive study using a self-administered structured questionnaire among 131 doctors in Delta State University Teaching Hospital (DELSUTH), Oghara. Data was analyzed using the IBM SPSS v.21. Eighty-eight (67.2%) respondents had a good knowledge of radiation safety while 49 (37.4%) of respondents had a good practice of radiation protection and safety. There was an association between the department of respondents (p=0.009), awareness of body parts sensitive to radiation (p=0.005) and their knowledge of radiation safety. Also, there was an association between the department of respondents (p=0.016), their years of experience (p=0.016) and the practice of radiation safety. Knowledge of radiation safety was high while the practice of radiation protection and safety was low amongst respondents. Gender, department of doctor and awareness of body parts that are sensitive to radiation were associated with good knowledge; while department and years of experience was associated with good practice. It is recommended that doctors receive regular updates on radiation hazards, risks and protection in order to reduce the risk of exposure of patients and health workers to unnecessary ionizing radiation.
Metrics
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
References
2. Soye JA. A survey of awareness of radiation dose among health professionals in Northern Ireland. Br J Radiol. 2008;81:725–729.
3. Ahidjo A, Garba I, Mustapha Z, Abubakar AM, Usman UA. Referring Doctors knowledge about radiation doses in patients undergoing common radiological examinations. J Med Med Sci vol. 2012;3(4):222–5.
4. Mohammad H, Iortile JT, Garba I, Suwaid MA. Knowledge of radiation and it effects among Doctors in Makurdi, North Central Nigeria. Int Res J Basic Clin Stud. 2013;1(7):103–6.
5. Hlaing YMAR. Radiation Safety Awareness Among Medical Doctors At North Okkalapa General and Teaching Hospital Radiation Safety Awareness Among Medical Doctors At North Okkalapa. Yangon: University of Public Health, Yangon (Unpublished); 2017.
6. Dahshan MAE, hussein N, Sahrah H, Almehmadi M, Alzahrani A, Baqasi A, et al. Assessment of Radiology Health Workers’Knowledge,Attitudes and Practices of Radiation Protection Precautions in Makkah City, Saudi Arabia. Int J Adv Res. 2017;5(2):1815–22.
7. Gorman T, Dropkin J, Kamen J, Nimbalkar S, Zuckerman N, Lowe T, et al. Controlling health hazards to hospital workers. New Solut. 2013;23 Suppl:1–167.
8. Ismanto, Che Hassan H. Factors Affecting Radiographers’ Compliance with Radiation Protection on All Areas of Hospital Settings Worldwide - A Meta-Analysis. IJIRST –International J Innov Res Sci Technol. 2016;3(4 september 2016):433–8.
9. Abdullahi AG, Haque F, Abdullahi MG, Ali M. Research Article Measurement of Radiation Dose on Medical Workers in Selected Hospitals in Dhaka Bangladesh. 2018;1:1–13.
10. Azmoonfar R, Faghirnavaz H, Younesi H, Morovati E, Ghorbani Z, Tohidnia MR. Physicians’ knowledge about radiation dose in radiological investigation in Iran. J Biomed Phys Eng. 2016;6(4):285–8.
11. Paolicchi F, Miniati F, Bastiani L, Faggioni L, Ciaramella A, Creonti I, et al. Assessment of radiation protection awareness and knowledge about radiological examination doses among Italian radiographers. Insights Imaging. 2016;7(2):233–42.
12. Szarmach A, Piskunowicz M, Świętoń D, Muc A, Mockałło G, Dzierżanowski J, et al. Radiation safety awareness among medical staff. Polish J Radiol. 2015;80(1):57–61.
13. Yurt A, Çavuşoğlu B, Günay T. Evaluation of Awareness on Radiation Protection and Knowledge About Radiological Examinations in Healthcare Professionals Who Use Ionized Radiation at Work. Malecular Imaging Radionucl Ther. 2014;22(2):48–53.
14. Partap A, Raghunanan R, White K, Seepaul T. Knowledge and practice of radiation safety among health professionals in Trinidad. SAGE Open Med. 2019;7:1–7.
15. Gillon R. “Primun non nocere” and the principles of non-malifience. BMJ. 1985;291:130–1.
16. Golding SJ, Shrimpton PC. Commentary. Radiation dose in CT: are we meeting the challenge? Br J Radiol. 2002;75:1–4.
17. ICRP. Managing patient dose in multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT). Ann ICRP. 2007;37:1–80.
18. Arslanoğlu A, Sibel B, Kubalı Z, Ceyhan MN, İlhan MN, Maral I. Doctors’ and intern doctors’ knowledge about patients’ ionizing radiation exposure doses during common radiological examinations. Diagn Interv Radiol. 2007;13:53–5.
19. Shiralkar S, Rennie A, Snow M, Galland RB, Lewis MH, Gower-Thomas. Doctors’ knowledge of radiation exposure: questionnaire study. BMJ. 2003;
20. Brenner DJ, Doll R, Goodhead DT, Al. E. Cancer risks attributable to low doses of ionizing radiation: assessing what we really know. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2003;100(13761–13766).
21. Borretzen I, Lysdahl KB, Olerud H. . Diagnostic radiology in Norway: trends in examination frequency and collective effective dose. Radiat Prot Dosim. 2007;124:339–47.
22. Shimura T, Yamaguchi I, Terada H, Okuda K, Svendsen ER, Kunugita N. Radiation occupational health interventions offered to radiation workers in response to the complex catastrophic disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. J Radiat Res. 2014;56(3):413–21.