ASSESSMENT OF KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE TOWARDS RADIATION HAZARDS AMONG DENTAL STUDENTS AND HOUSE OFFICERS AT TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL

Abstract

The aim of the study was to determine the knowledge and attitude about radiation hazards among dental students and house officers. A Cross sectional study was conducted at the department of Dental Radiology, Faisalabad Medical University, Faisalabad from February 2019 to March 2019. A structured questionnaire consisted of total 15 open and closed ended questions were distributed among 150 participants of third year, final year BDS students and house officers. The questions were divided into three different sections; Section A: Demographic Detail; Section B: Knowledge Questions and Section C: Attitude Questions. Out of 150 distributed questionnaires 116 (77.3%) were collected and analyzed. The most of the participants were females 89 (76.7%) and the number of male participants were only 27 (23.3%) with male to female ratio 1:3.5. The age of the participants ranged from 15-30 years (mean age: 21.4 years). Among 116 participants 35 (30.2%) participants were from third year BDS class 41 (35.3%) from final year BDS class and 40 (34.5%) participants were House Officers. The majority of study participants (73%) had adequate knowledge about radiation hazards and its preventive measures. However, results revealed that there are still misinterpretations regarding the attitudes of participants towards radiation hazards and only 64% participants have adequate concept regarding this. The results of this study showed that the overall level of knowledge concerning radiation hazards among the BDS students and house officers is fairly satisfactory. However, there are quiet misapprehensions regarding the attitudes, which mirror the wrong impression of the radiation usage among study participants. This calls for well-defined programs on health education emphasizing on such misapprehensions.