The Analysis with Quantitative Indexes for Public’s Awareness of Radiation Knowledge in Taiwan

Abstract

(1) Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the radiation awareness level of the public in Taiwan. (2) Methods: This study designed an online survey form to investigate the radiation awareness level with six topics: basic knowledge of radiation, environmental radiation, medical radiation, radiation protection, and university/corporate social responsibility. The score of respondents were converted into knowledge and responsibility indexes for the quantitative evaluation. Logistic regression was used to assess the correlation between the knowledge index and individual factors. Paired t-test was used to assess the significant difference in knowledge index between pre-training and post-training. (3) Results: The knowledge index of each job category reflected the proportion of radiation awareness of the job. The logistic regression result indicated that radiation-related people could get higher knowledge index. The paired t-test indicated that the knowledge index before and after class had significant differences in all question topics. (4) Conclusions: The public’s awareness of medical radiation was the topic that needed to be strengthened the most—the responses with high knowledge index significantly correlated with their experience in radiation education training or radiation-related jobs. It significantly increased the knowledge index of radiation if the public received radiation education training.

Assessment of awareness and attitude towards radiation hazards and safety in the general population

“…Feng et al stated that the public's awareness of medical radiation was the topic that needed to be strengthened, and it will significantly increase the knowledge index of radiation if the public receives radiation education training. 15 Similarly, in our study, a mean of 95% of the population agreed to questions related to spreading awareness about harmful effects and knowing safety measures. This finding suggests that there should be the incorporation of public awareness programmes pertaining to teaching general radiation awareness and safety.…”