A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY TO KNOW AWARENESS AMONG FIRST YEAR MBBS STUDENTS REGARDING RADIATION HAZARDS IN REHMAN MEDICAL COLLEGE PESHAWAR

Muhammad Kashan Khan; Muhammad Aliyan Khan

doi:10.46903/gjms/23.2.1987

A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY TO KNOW AWARENESS AMONG FIRST YEAR MBBS STUDENTS REGARDING RADIATION HAZARDS IN REHMAN MEDICAL COLLEGE PESHAWAR

Muhammad Kashan Khan, Muhammad Aliyan Khan

Abstract

Background: Medical students will be the future medical health care providers, so they should have up to date knowledge regarding the radiation hazards. But unfortunately, in majority of the previous published studies it is observed that medical students have very little information in this regard. So, the aim of our study was to know the awareness among the first year MBBS students of Rehman Medical College Peshawar regarding radiation hazards.

Materials & Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted in Rehman Medical College Peshawar from January to March 2025. All the first year MBBS students were included in this study and a self-designed questionnaire of 10 items were distributed among them. The data was then entered and analyzed in SPSS version 22. The research variables were knowledge regarding radiation hazards in terms of gender and location-residence (urban/rural) of students. The results are shown in frequencies and percentages. Table and graphs are used where necessary. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered as significant.

Results: Among 137 participants 56(40.9%) were male and 81(59.1%) were female students. About 58.4% (80) were from urban areas while 41.6% (57) were from rural areas. In our study we found that location had a significant effect on awareness regarding X-ray radiation with a p-value of 0.047 whereas gender had an insignificant effect with a resulting p-value of 0.081. It was found that more 90% of the participants were aware about the adverse effects of radiation hazards of CT-Scan and MRI. Regarding pregnant women and children, more than 85 % of the student have awareness that Xray’s have hazardous effects on them. As far as protective measures taken while performing Xray’s and the systems mostly affected by radiation, more than 50% of the study population were familiar and had up to date knowledge. Majority answered that radiation can cause cancer in different organ.

Conclusions: We observed that knowledge regarding hazards among First year MBBS students is quite good, and hope that in the future they will be more updated in this regard.

Keywords

Awareness; Cancer; Hazards; Medical students; Radiation; Protection.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.46903/gjms/23.2.1987