Volume 26, Issue 119, January 2022

Parental involvement in medical imaging in the emergency department

Hussain A Al Ghadeer^1♦, Ahmad Alsubaie², Fatimah A Alsowailem³, Zahra A Alhababi³, Khadijah A Alali³, Abdulaziz S Almentakh³, Jalal K Aldandan¹, Hussain A Al Sakkak³, Mohammed H Alzoayed⁴, Alaa B Alali³

¹Paediatric department, Maternity and Children Hospital, AlAhsa, Saudi Arabia
²Radiology department, King Fahad Hospital-Hofuf, AlAhsa, Saudi Arabia
³Radiology department, College of Medicine, King Faisal University, AlAhsa, Saudi Arabia
⁴Radiology department, College of Medicine, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Saudi Arabia

^♦Corresponding author
Paediatric department, Maternity and Children Hospital, AlAhsa, Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

Background: Radiology uses different modalities to identify wide range of the problems, monitor response to treatment, and screen for diseases. As for children, parents or caregivers should be up-to-date about the benefits and risks of the management. Health care staff ordering or performing procedures have a communal responsibility to contact with the patients. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted in AlAhsa, Saudi Arabia during the period from September to November 2021. Data were collected by using pre-structured questionnaire that distributed to parents whom visit ER department and their child went imaging study. The questionnaire consists of 4 parts (biographical data, sociodemographic data, child data and understanding the imaging procedure and radiation risks). Results: Out of 1344, 535 caregivers fulfilling the inclusion criteria completed the study questionnaire. The mean age of participants was 34.2 ± 11.8 years old. Exact of 374 (69.9%) care givers were females. A total of 455 (85%) caregivers reported that the physician explains the main reason of doing radiation, 144 (26.9%) told that the physician explains risk of radiation, and 269 (50.35%) worried about the radiation toward their child. Exact of 192 (35.9%) caregivers had good awareness level regarding medical radiation exposure while 343 (64.1%) had poor awareness level. Conclusion: the study caregiver’s involvement regarding reasons of child exposure to medical radiation was high but the discussion regarding risks of exposure was unsatisfactory and below caregiver’s expectations.

Keywords: Medical radiation, exposure, paediatrics, parents, emergency department, AlAhsa, Saudi Arabia

Medical Science, 2022, 26, ms29e2041

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.54905/disssi/v26i119/ms29e2041

Published: 14 January 2022