Comparison on Awareness of Radiation Hazards among Females of Different Age Group

Background: Radiation is a source of energy which travels through materials. The ionising radiation produce free radicals from an atom with the electron removal. X-ray is the most common ionizing radiation helping in diagnosis. There is an increase in the use of radiation in diagnosis, procedural along with surgical treatment where radiologists and the patients should be aware of the radiation hazards and its ill effects. The aim of our study is to analyse the radiation hazards awareness among females of various age groups.

Materials and Methods: The study was done as an online setting; the responses were obtained from 103 female participants from the Chennai sub population. A self-structured questionnaire comprising about 18 yes or no types of questions were prepared in google forms and circulated as a link to the participants. The responses were exported to google sheets and data was retrieved and analysed in SPSS software version 26. The results were obtained from SPSS software.

Results: From the results analysed, 74.76% have undergone X ray or any procedures but only few (25.24%) did not undergo any diagnostic procedures. 71.84% of them were aware that all radiation is hazardous whereas the rest (28.16%) were not aware. 88.35% of them accepted that bone marrow and child’s thyroid tissue are more sensitive to radiation but few (11.65%) did not accept it. 71.84% of the participants of females of age group 20-40 years were more aware than females of 40-60 years age group (16.50%) that bone marrow, the child's thyroid is the sensitive tissue affected by radiation. Chi square test was done and the association was found to be not statistically significant with P-value .236 (P = .05). Chi square test was done to check awareness of thyroid cancer caused mainly through radiations between the two age groups of females and the association was found to be not statistically significant with p-value is .703 (P = .05).

Conclusion: Within the limits of the study, the females of age group 20-40 years have higher levels of awareness than females of age group 40-60 years.