Pediatricians' awareness of diagnostic medical radiation effects and doses: are the latest efforts paying off?

PURPOSE: The number of radiological exams performed on children increases each year. We assessed the current understanding of radiation doses and risks among a sample group of pediatricians and evaluated whether the latest efforts to improve radiation awareness affected the results. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A multiple-choice survey comprising 16 questions was answered by 237 pediatricians in 10 hospitals. RESULTS: Although the overall knowledge was poor, underestimation of radiation doses of common radiological procedures was significantly lower (75.2%) than that reported in previous surveys (87%-97%). In contrast to previous reports, the percentage of underestimates did not increase for computed tomography (74.8%), and residents scored (7.5±5.1) better than specialists (11.0±6.3) in estimating the radiation doses (P < 0.001). Only 3.1% of the pediatricians had received formal education on medical radiation, and 89% were not aware of the ALARA (As Low As Reasonably Achievable) principle. CONCLUSION: Pediatricians' radiation dose awareness is better than it was a few years ago, and the latest educational efforts in the form of campaigns, reports, publications, and news media seem to have had a beneficial effect. The younger generation had better knowledge, possibly because they were exposed to discussions of radiation dosage at an earlier stage in their training.