Occupational Radiation Exposure and Validity of National Dosimetry Registry among Korean Interventional Radiologists

Abstract

The national dose registry (NDR) contains essential information to help protect radiation workers from radiation-related health risks and to facilitate epidemiological studies. However, direct validation of the reported doses has not been considered. We investigated the validity of the NDR with a personal dosimeter monitoring conducted among Korean interventional radiologists. Among the 56 interventional radiologists, NDR quarterly doses were compared with actively monitored personal thermoluminescent dosimeter (TLD) doses as standard measures of validation. We conducted analyses with participants categorized according to compliance with TLD badge-wearing policies. A correlation between actively monitored doses and NDR doses was low (Spearman ρ = 0.06), and the mean actively monitored dose was significantly higher than the mean NDR dose (mean difference 0.98 mSv) in all participants. However, interventional radiologists who wore badges irregularly showed a large difference between actively monitored doses and NDR doses (mean difference 2.39 mSv), and participants who wore badges regularly showed no apparent difference between actively monitored doses and NDR doses (mean difference 0.26 mSv). This study indicated that NDR data underestimate the actual occupational radiation exposure, and the validity of these data varies according to compliance with badge-wearing policies. Considerable attention is required to interpret and utilize NDR data based on radiation workers’ compliance with badge-wearing policies.

Underestimation of Radiation Doses by Compliance of Wearing Dosimeters among Fluoroscopically-Guided Interventional Medical Workers in Korea

“…The level of underestimation reported in the present study (approximately 90%) may be comparable to that among Korean interventional radiologists [ 9 ] when considering the lower badge wearing compliance among doctors compared with that in other medical workers. This previous study also reported that the validity of NDR was significantly dependent on the badge wearing compliance level.…”

“…A participant-friendly online self-administered questionnaire (http://www.rhs.kr/ intervention, accessed on 20 June 2022) for interventional medical radiation workers was developed based on our previous study [9]. To maximize the participation rate, several approaches were applied, such as maintaining periodic contacts with the executives and publicity team of the relevant professional societies, asking them to link their website to the web survey, creating banner advertisements that promote the study on their websites, sending e-mails to introduce the sending web surveys to individual members, making reminder calls as follow-ups to invitations, providing gift vouchers to encourage participation, and sending a statement from the KDCA to confirm the participants' official cooperation to the related societies.…”