Salerno Sergio, Nardi Cosimo, Pace Mario, Rabiolo Lidia, Flammia Federica, Loverre Francesco, Matranga Domenica, Granata Claudio, Tomà Paolo, Colagrande Stefano
Dipartimento di Biomedicina, Neuroscienze e Diagnostica Avanzata, Policlinico Università di Palermo, Palermo, Italy.
Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche, Sperimentali e Cliniche, Radiodiagnostic Unit n. 2, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Careggi, Università di Firenze, Florence, Italy.
Acta Radiol Open. 2023 Apr 17;12(4):20584601231168967. doi: 10.1177/20584601231168967. eCollection 2023 Apr.
The newly adopted European directive DE59/2013 mandates adequate patient information in procedures involving ionising radiation. Patient interest in knowing about their radiation dose and an effective communication method for dose exposure remain poorly investigated.
This study is aimed at investigating both patient interest in radiation dose and an effective method to communicate radiation dose exposure.
The present analysis is based on a multi-centre cross-sectional data collection involving 1,084 patients from four different hospitals ‒ two general and two paediatric hospitals. Anonymous questionnaires were administered, consisting of an initial overview of radiation use in imaging procedures, a patient data section, and an explanatory section providing information in four modalities.
1009 patients were included in the analysis, with 75 refusing participation; 173 participants were relatives of paediatric patients. Initial information provided to patients was considered comprehensible. The information modality with symbols was considered the most readily understandable format by patients, with no appreciable differences in comprehension attributable to social or cultural background. The modality including dose numbers and diagnostic reference levels was preferred by patients with higher socio-economic background. The option 'None of those' was selected by one-third of our sample population, composed of four different clusters: female, over 60 years old, unemployed, and from low socio-economic backgrounds.
This study demonstrated a high level of interest amongst patients in knowing about radiation dose exposure. Pictorial representations were well understood by patients from a variety of different ages and education levels. However, a universally comprehensible model of communicating radiation dose information remains to be elucidated.
新通过的欧洲指令DE59/2013规定，在涉及电离辐射的程序中要向患者提供充分的信息。患者对了解其辐射剂量的兴趣以及剂量暴露的有效沟通方式仍未得到充分研究。
本研究旨在调查患者对辐射剂量的兴趣以及传达辐射剂量暴露的有效方法。
本分析基于多中心横断面数据收集，涉及来自四家不同医院（两家综合医院和两家儿童医院）的1084名患者。发放了匿名问卷，包括成像程序中辐射使用的初步概述、患者数据部分以及以四种方式提供信息的解释部分。
1009名患者纳入分析，75人拒绝参与；173名参与者是儿科患者的亲属。提供给患者的初始信息被认为是可理解的。带有符号的信息方式被患者认为是最容易理解的格式，不同社会或文化背景的患者在理解上没有明显差异。社会经济背景较高的患者更喜欢包含剂量数字和诊断参考水平的方式。三分之一的样本人群选择了“都不合适”这一选项，该人群由四个不同群体组成：女性、60岁以上、失业以及社会经济背景较低。
本研究表明患者对了解辐射剂量暴露有很高的兴趣。各种不同年龄和教育水平的患者都能很好地理解图片表示。然而，仍有待阐明一种普遍可理解的辐射剂量信息沟通模式。
