ABSTRACT
Background: More than 3,600 million radiology examinations are carried out every year worldwide. In spite of the great benefits of diagnostic and therapeutic radiations, they may result in some hazards if used inappropriately. However, these hazards can be prevented through raising the awareness of health care professionals about these hazards and the protective measures to be considered. Several guidelines and regulations were issued for this purpose including; the POPUMET regulations and ALARA principle and the WHO global initiative on radiation safety in health care settings
Aim: The current study aimed at assessing the level of radiation protection awareness among clinicians and radiologists in addition to exploring if radiation protection courses have a beneficial effect on the awareness level or not
Methods: This was a cross-sectional study where the level of radiation protection awareness was assessed using an anonymous questionnaire
Results: A total of 101 [100%] participants responded to the questionnaire. Of which; 49 [48.5%] were residents, 30 [29.7%] were specialists and 22 participants [21.8%] were consultants. Slightly less than half of the participants [48, 47.5%] have attended a radiation protection course before. The majority of participants who attended a course [68.8%] have heard about the POPUMET regulations [p<0.001]. Participants were asked about the procedures with risk equivalent to 0.25 mSy of radiation estimated dose equivalent. And it was found that course attendance improved the knowledge about the risk of 3 [out of 4] procedures [p<0.05]. On the other hand, course attendance didn't improve the knowledge about the approximated radiation doses of some procedures [p>0.05] or the degree of radio-sensitivity of different organs [p>0.05]. The majority of the participants [96%] were not aware that there is no annual limit of radiation dose for patients. Around half of the participants [56.4%] were aware about what the word "ALARA" stands for
Conclusion: Results of the current study suggested that the level of radiation protection awareness among health care professionals is not sufficient to ensure patients and workers' safety. And accordingly, we suggested that more efficient awareness programs for health care professionals are conducted on regular basis with regular monitoring of awareness level to explore areas for improvement
ABSTRACT
Background: Diabetes mellitus was defined by World health Organization as a metabolic disorder which characterized by chronic hyperglycemia. It is a disease with several etiologies. It is one of common diseases in children. School children with diabetes need special care while they are in school as they may experience problems in glucose levels or other problems. Teachers are persons responsible for children in school, so they should have adequate information and good level of awareness about diabetes to deal with diabetic children especially in emergency case
Aim: To assess the awareness of school teachers about diabetes
Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed in the period between October 2017 and November 2017 on school teachers in Makah region using a questionnaire. Data were analyzed by SPSS program
Results: There were 58.4% males and 41.6% females in this study, the correlations between level of knowledge and different variables were as follow; the age of teachers significantly [P-value=0.009] affected the level of awareness, where teachers with older age [>/=50 years] had the highest awareness among other participants, while those with age 40-49 years were the dominant group to have both moderate 30 [58.8%] and low awareness 20 [39.2%]. Gender also was a significant factor that affected the level of awareness [P-value=0.004], where males 23 [33.8] had high level of awareness than females 3 [12.6%]
Conclusion: There was moderate level of knowledge about diabetes among school teachers. Age, gender, level of education and monthly income affected the level of knowledge