KNOWLEDGE AND AWARENESS OF RADIATION EXPOSURE AND RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING MODALITIES AMONG MEDICAL STUDENTS

Aim: This study examines the knowledge and awareness of radiation exposure which is associated with diagnostic imaging modalities among 102 medical students in an institute. To Evaluate the Objective: level of knowledge and awareness of radiation associated risks and safety principles. To Assess how education can be improved. To improve the safety measures and protect medical students from unnecessary radiation exposure. Methodology: Study Design- This is a hospital based cross sectional study. Study Participants- Indian medical undergraduates,interns and junior residents. Study Setting- konaseema institute of medical sciences and research foundation, Amalapuram. Study Size - 100 medical students including undergraduates,interns and junior residents. Convenience sampling. Sampling Technique - Inclusion Criteria - Medical undergraduate students, interns and junior residents of konaseema institute of medical sciences and research foundation. Students who are not willing to give the consent. Exclusion Criteria - Data Collection Procedure - Data was collected through a online pre designed questionnaire. Condentiality - Particulars and details of all participants was kept condential throughout the study.Only summary of the details was used for declaring the result. Institutional ethics committee approval was taken and Ethical Consideration - informed consent was obtained. Awareness, knowledge about ionising radiation and associated risks we Survey: re assessed using a questionnaire tool.In this questionnaire ,the students were asked whether they had received any lectures about ionising radiation during their program of study and to what degree these lectures had focused on radiation exposure and risks associated with various diagnostic modalities and the safety measures that has to be taken while exposure and how important is what they felt about ionising radiation,as it relates to radiological investigations. Review Of Literature: A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted by Seife Teferi Dellie , in Addis Ababa University, College of Health Science, Addis Ababa, where there are medical students from the rst year to the nal year including their internship program. Aim is to assess the level of knowledge about the radiation exposure to diagnostic imaging procedures among the nal-year medical students and interns and to suggest how education could be improved. 245 (71.4%) and 254 (79.3%) incorrectly believed that ultrasound and MRI, respectively, emit ionizing radiation or they do not know if they emit radiation or not. Awareness did not increase with seniority; there was no signicant difference between interns and medical students (P = 0.56). It is alarming that 14.9% of participants believed that such knowledge was either “not really important” or “not important at all” or “they do not know if it is important or not.” This group scored signicantly lower than those who believed that radiation knowledge was “moderately important” or “very important” (P = 0.002). In terms of radiation awareness, 34.8% of respondents acknowledged that they had some form of education on ionizing radiation previously in the form of lectures (21.3%), tutorials/workshops (7.3%), or a combination of these 5.2%.If the respondents were to have a choice in the format of education for further radiation awareness, they answered that a combination of tutorials or workshops (29.7%) and learning modules (19.8%) would be their rst and last choices, respectively.[10] Another observational cross-sectional survey targeting female nal-year medical students and interns at King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia. conducted by Abrar Abdu Mohammed1*.The aim of the study is to evaluate the level of medical students' and intern doctors' awareness of ionizing radiation exposure doses during common radiological procedures. An online link to a brief survey was sent to the participants through social media groups, in which they study and discuss study-related topics. The survey consisted of 5 questions on Students' socio-demographic data and their understanding and perceived importance of knowledge about radiation, 16 questions evaluating their knowledge on ionizing radiation doses, and 2 questions on their preferred method of learning on the study' subject. The total mean score of knowledge about estimated radiation exposure ranged from 0 to 9, with higher scores indicating greater knowledge. Eighty-seven students responded to the survey, 48 (55.2%) were nal-year medical students and 39(44.8%) were interned doctors. Their mean age was 23.7 years (SD 1.13 years). Overall, the mean score of knowledge about estimated radiation exposure of commonly usedradiological imaging modalities was 0.71. A signicant difference was found in the year of study, with intern doctors scored higher than nal-year medical students (p = 0.04). Regarding age, students aged 24 years or older scored higher, but not signicantly, than younger (p= 0.08). No signicant difference in knowledge was found regarding students' condence with knowledge about Ionizing Radiations (IR) (p= 0.17) and students. Perceived importance of IR (p = 0.73). Overall, these results suggest that students in this sample had low level of knowledge about estimated radiation exposure of commonly used radiological imaging modalities. When asked about previous education of ionizing radiation, 41.4% of the respondents reported that they had no such knowledge. Themajority (40.2%) preferred Tutorials/workshops as educational methods for future learning about ionizing radiation, followed by lectures (29.9), case studies (18.4%), and learning modules (11.5%).[11]