Radiation Protection Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (RP-KAP) as Predictors of Job Stress Among Radiation Workers in Tehran Province, Iran

Occupational radiation exposure dose and associated factors among radiology personnel in Eastern Amhara, Ethiopia

BACKGROUND

Ionizing radiation is being used more frequently in medicine, which has been linked to recognized biological effects such as cancer and mortality. Radiology services are becoming more widely available in Ethiopian health facilities but there is no compiled record of worker's radiation dose. So, assessing the magnitude and identifying the associated factors of occupational radiation exposure dose among radiology personnel help to design strategies for radiation protection.

OBJECTIVE

The study was designed to assess the occupational radiation exposure dose and associated factors among radiology personnel in eastern Amhara, northeast Ethiopia, 2021.

METHODS

Cross-sectional study was conducted from March 25 to April 30, 2021, in 57 health institutions among 198 radiology personnel. The study comprised all eligible radiology personnel. The data were collected using an electronic-based (Google form) self-administered questionnaire, and document review. The data were entered into an excel spread sheet and then, exported to Stata 14 software. Linear regression model was used to analyse the data after checking its assumptions. Variables with a p-value < 0.25 were entered into a multiple linear regression analysis, and those with a p-value < 0.05 were judged significant. VIF was used to check for multi-collinearity. Coefficient of determination was used to check the model fitness.

RESULTS

The mean (± SD) annual shallow and deep dose equivalents of radiology personnel were 1.20 (± 0.75) and 1.02 (± 0.70) mSv, respectively. Body mass index (β = 0.104, 95% CI: 0.07, 0.14), practice of timing (β = -0.43, 95% CI: -0.73, -0.13), working experience (β = -0.04, 95% CI: -0.048, -0.032), and practice of distancing (β = -0.26, 95% CI: -0.49, -0.17) were found to be statistically significant factors of annual deep dose equivalent. In addition, body mass index (β = 0.113, 95% CI: 0.08, 0.15), practice of timing (β = -0.62 95% CI: -0.93, -0.31) and, working experience (β = -0.044, 95% CI: -0.053, -0.036 had statistically significant associations with annual shallow dose equivalent.

CONCLUSION

The annual dose equivalents were two times higher than the global average of annual per caput effective dose due to medical exposure. Body mass index, practice of timing, working experience, and practice of distancing were factors of occupational radiation exposure dose. Strategies focusing on increasing the skill, experience, and lifestyle of radiology personnel would be supreme important means to reduce occupational radiation exposure dose.

Factors affecting job stress among physical therapists during the COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia

<b>Background:</b> Physical therapists (PTs), like other healthcare professionals, are susceptible to job stress when involved in patient care, and several factors contribute to it. Therefore, this study aims to assess PTs’ knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) adopted by PTs during the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on their job stress.<br /> <b>Methods:</b> A cross-sectional design was used. 300 PTs from the government and private healthcare organizations in Saudi Arabia were randomly picked and invited to participate. Data were collected using a pre-tested content-validated KAP tool using a Google Form between January and March 2022. Data were analyzed quantitively through SPSS 24.0.<br /> <b>Results:</b> The findings revealed that 85% of PTs whose job involves direct contact with the patients are susceptible to higher stress (perceived stress score [PSS]=22.82) than others. Specifically, female and unmarried PTs are prone to more job stress than others (p&lt;0.05). In addition, PTs who were apprehensive about managing COVID-19 patients and worried about acquiring COVID-19 disease are prone to more job stress. Lastly, 89% of PTs who adopted the practice of wearing N-95 masks and proper handwashing techniques (&gt;80%) experience less stress than others (p&lt;0.05).<br /> <b>Conclusion:</b> The KAP of PTs influences job stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. PTs with sufficient knowledge about measures to adopt, show a positive attitude, and practice wearing proper PPEs, handwashing procedures, and waste disposal systems during patient care are prone to less job stress than others.

Professional Quality of Life Among Medical Imaging Technologists and Radiologists During COVID-19 Pandemic in India

Background

Professional quality of life is one of the growing concerns among healthcare workers especially during COVID-19 pandemic. Presence and work of radiologist and medical imaging technologist for prolonged hours with patients could be stressful and painful.

Objectives

This study aimed to assess the professional quality of life among the radiologist and medical imaging technologist by analyzing professional satisfaction, compassion, and burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

An online, cross-sectional, self-reported, and internet-based survey was carried out among 153 radiologists and medical imaging technologists. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the sociodemographic variables and domains of professional quality of life scale. Cronbach's alpha was used to check internal consistency. Independent sample t-test (two-tailed) was used to compare the demographic variables and compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress.

Results

Most participants reported moderate and higher level of compassion satisfaction, whereas moderate burnout and secondary traumatic stress was reported by most participants during COVID-19 pandemic. There was negative correlation between compassion satisfaction and burnout and secondary traumatic stress.

Conclusion

The findings of this study are vital to understand the work-related quality of life among healthcare professionals not only during COVID-19 pandemic but also after the pandemic situation. There is a need to conduct qualitative evaluation to ascertain the risk factors associated with professional quality of life. The study also reflects the need to focus more on the mental health of healthcare professionals not only during and after pandemic situation.

Impacts of psychological stress on high dose-rate radiation acute effects in a mouse experimental model

Psychological stress affects health. Radiation workers in the medical field or astronauts living in space have possible risks of exposure to radiation, and psychological stress is considered to be easily induced in them due to activities performed in small areas or stress conditions. The impact of psychological stress on the effects of radiation was evaluated in senescence-accelerated mouse prone 10 (SAMP10) mice and ddY mice using a confrontational housing model, which makes dominant and subordinate mice in a cage live together without severe quarrel. Mice of ddY and SAMP10 have been previously demonstrated to be influenced in terms of acute and late effects, respectively, under psychological stress by this model. In SAMP10 mice, irradiation with 4 Gy induced the death of irradiated mice under psychological stress. In ddY mice, irradiation with 5 Gy X-rays alone had almost no effect on the mouse survival, but irradiation in conditions of psychological stress promoted acute death of irradiated mice. In addition, hypocellular bone marrow was also observed histopathologically in irradiated ddY mice under stress. Psychological stress may promote damage caused by radiation through modulation of radio-sensitivity in bone marrow in mice. This model would be useful for evaluation of modulation of radiation-induced various effects by psychological stress.

Assessment of Health Professionals' Attitudes on Radiation Protection Measures

(1) Background: Health professionals' knowledge, beliefs and perceptions concerning radiation protection may affect their behaviour during surgery and consequently influence the quality of health services. This study highlights the health professionals' average knowledge level and captures the beliefs, perceptions, and behaviours in a large public Greek hospital. (2) Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out, including health professionals working in operating rooms. One hundred thirty-two staff members participated by responding to an original questionnaire. The sample consisted of nurses, radiographers and medical doctors of various specialties involved daily in surgical procedures where ionizing radiation is required. The survey was conducted from March to June 2021, and the response rate was 97%. (3) Results: The level of overall knowledge of health professionals regarding radiation protection safety was not satisfactory. Females and employees with a lower level of education had more misconceptions about radiation and radiation protection. Employees of younger ages and with less previous experience were more likely to have negative emotions towards radiation exposure. Finally, employees with fewer children tended to express physical complaints caused by their negative emotions due to radiation exposure. (4) Conclusions: Health professionals' lack of basic and specialized knowledge concerning radiation protection safety had a negative impact on the provision of health services. The continuing training of the staff seemed to be the only solution to reverse this trend. The training should highlight how radiation exposure can be minimized, safeguarding health professionals' trust and sense of security by significantly improving their working environment.

Knowledge, attitude and management of hearing screening in children among family physicians in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

BACKGROUND

Early detection and management of hearing loss are important to develop ordinary speaking language and academic skills during childhood. Lack of knowledge by either parents or health care providers could hinder the process of hearing loss diagnosis, such that the intervention will be less effective. There is little evidence about the knowledge and practice of family physicians regarding hearing screening in Saudi Arabia and worldwide.

OBJECTIVES

This study aimed to assess family physicians' knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to hearing loss in children. This in turn will help policy makers and educational institutions to establish and promote a program concerned with screening, diagnosis and intervention of paediatric hearing loss.

METHODS

A cross-sectional descriptive study enrolled 133 family physicians working at primary health centres in Saudi Arabia from March 2020 to September 2020. A self-reported questionnaire was used to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of family physicians concerning hearing loss in children.

RESULTS

The majority of the participants were working under the umbrella of the Ministry of Health and around half of them did not screen any child for hearing loss. Despite that, 91.7% indicated the importance of neonatal hearing screening, 70.7% indicate infant candidacy for cochlear implant and only 33.1% know about the existence of the early hearing detection and intervention (EHDI) governmental program in kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Participants were able to identify factors associated with hearing loss such as a family history of hearing loss (85.6%), meningitis (75%) and craniofacial anomalies (51.5%). The most frequent specialists for patient referrals were ear nose and throat ENT (75.2%) and audiologists (67.7%).

CONCLUSION

This study shows that family physicians have good general background about the benefits of EHDI programs and the management of hearing loss in the paediatric population. However, it also indicated insufficient knowledge in other domains of hearing loss, including assessments and the presence of the EHDI governmental program in KSA. Further actions on the involvement of family physicians in the process of neonatal hearing screening, diagnosis and intervention for hearing impairment are needed.

Radiation protection among health care workers: knowledge, attitude, practice, and clinical recommendations: a systematic review

OBJECTIVES

This study was performed to determine the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of health care workers (HCWs) towards radiation protection.

METHODS

In this systematic review study, three international databases (Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus) were searched for related published articles in the English language from 1 January 2000 to 1 February 2020. The quality of the included studies was evaluated using the Hoy et al. tool.

RESULTS

Out of the 1,848 studies examined, 41 studies that were performed on 11,050 HCWs were included in the final stage. The results indicated that in most studies, more than half (50%) of the participants had average knowledge. Furthermore, 60% of the participants had a positive attitude, but in most studies, they had average practice regarding radiation protection. The most important recommendation for improving KAP among the participants was incorporating radiation protection standards in the student curriculum.

CONCLUSION

Considering the results of the study, further attention should be paid to proper education regarding radiation protection standards and improvement of HCW performance.

Status and Factors of Menstrual Knowledge, Attitudes, Behaviors and Their Correlation with Psychological Stress in Adolescent Girls

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

Adolescent girls perceive menstruation as a negative experience, which can affect adolescents' physical and mental health. The aims of this study were to describe the menstrual knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of adolescent girls in China and to examine their association with psychological stress. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, INTERVENTIONS, AND MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1349 adolescent girls aged 11-14 years in Changsha, China. Participants anonymously completed questionnaires that assessed sociodemographic characteristics, menstrual knowledge and attitudes, dysmenorrhea self-care behaviors, and perceived stress. One-way analysis of variance and Pearson r correlation and multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to examine the differences and associations among variables.

RESULTS

The mean age of menarche was 11.70 (±0.82) years. A total of 1053/1349 (78.1%) of girls had a knowledge of menstruation before menarche and their mothers were the main source 931/1349 (69.0%) of their knowledge. More than half (53.4%) of adolescent girls experienced different degrees of dysmenorrhea. The mother's education, family monthly income, family type, and the girls' age, grade, menstrual status, age at menarche, sanitary napkin change frequency, menstrual restrictions, and dysmenorrhea influenced menstrual knowledge, attitudes, and practice. Psychological stress was affected by age, grade, age at menarche, sanitary napkin change frequency, menstrual restrictions, dysmenorrhea, and menstrual knowledge, attitudes, and practices.

CONCLUSION

Psychological stress management during menstruation should be a focus of health education programs for adolescent girls. During adolescence, health care providers should not only pay attention to the physical changes of adolescence girls, but also provide stress management skills to help them cope with menstrual-related concerns.

ShRNA-mediated matrix metalloproteinase-2 gene silencing protects normal cells and sensitizes cancer cells against ionizing-radiation induced damage

INTRODUCTION

Ionizing radiation (IR) affects healthy tissues during the treatment of cancer radiation therapy and other nuclear and radiological accidents. Some natural compounds showed nonspecific radioprotective activity with severe side effects. The present study is aimed to develop potent and specific radioprotective short hairpin RNA (shRNA), which selectively protects normal cells from IR by specifically targeting matrix metalloproteinases (MMP-2).

RESULTS

IR reduced the viability of human normal dermal fibroblasts (HDFs) in a dose-response manner. It enhanced the expression of MMP-2 at 10 Gy. Plasmid MMP-2shRNA (pMMP-2) reduced the IR (10 Gy) induced cytotoxicity analyzed by lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) assay, normalized IR induced cellular and morphological changes with enhanced the clonogenicity in 48 hours at 2 µg/mL. It reduced the ROS generation, released HDFs from G₂ /M arrest and rescued from apoptosis analyzed by DCFDA dye, cell cycle analysis by PI stain and annexin V assay, respectively. pMMP-2 also modulates the expression of EGFR and reduced IR induced expression of DNA damage response protein, ATM and increased the expression of repair proteins, KU70/KU80, and RAD51. In addition, decreased the expression of cell cycle regulatory proteins cyclin-dependent kinases (CDK1) and Cyclin B as well as proapoptotic proteins BAX, caspase-3, and Cytochrome-C and increased the expression of survival protein, Bcl-2. In contrary pMMP-2 decreased the LDH activity, survival fraction and blocked G₂ /M phase of cell cycle and increased apoptosis in MCF-7 cells. In addition, decreased the expression of EGFR, proapoptotic BAX and DNA repair proteins ATM, KU70/80 and RAD51, increased expression of cyclinB as well as CDK1.

CONCLUSION

Results conclude that pMMP-2 protected HDFs from IR and sensitized the MCF-7 cells. Therefore, pMMP-2 can be employed for better treatment of radiation accidents and during the treatment of radiotherapy.

Radiation Protection Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice (KAP) in Interventional Radiology

Objectives

Due to increasing cardiac disease and its mortality rate, the frequency of cardiac imaging has grown and, as a result, interventional cardiologists potentially receive high radiation doses in cardiac examinations. This study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) level of radiation protection (RP) among interventional radiology staff in Iranian health care centers across the country.

Methods

We used a validated questionnaire survey consisting of 30 multiple-choice questions to perform a cross-sectional study. Participants were healthcare personnel working professionally with radiation at different levels (i.e., secretary, radiology technologists, nurse, and physician). The questionnaire was divided into three sections to assess KAP regarding RP.

Results

Significant differences exist in RP KAP mean scores based on educational age (p < 0.050). There was no significant difference in RP KAP mean scores when looking at sex, practice age, and hospital type (p > 0.050). We found a significant difference between RP KAP mean scores and different regions (p < 0.050).

Conclusions

Educational and practice age, sex, type of hospital, and geographical region affect he KAP of interventional radiology staff regarding RP. Since many of the subjective radiation harms for both medical team and patients, this can be easily controlled and prevented; a checkup for personnel of interventional radiology departments, considering samples from different parts of the country with different levels of education, continuous training, and practical courses may help map the status of KAP. The results of this study may also help authorized health physics officers design strategic plans to enhance the quality of such services in radiation departments.