PeerJ (May 2015)

Patient understanding of radiation risk from medical computed tomography—A comparison of Hispanic vs. non-Hispanic emergency department populations

  • Afton McNierney-Moore,
  • Cynthia Smith,
  • Jose Guardiola,
  • K. Tom Xu,
  • Peter B. Richman

DOI
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.937
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 3
p. e937

Abstract

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Background. Cultural differences and language barriers may adversely impact patients with respect to understanding the risks/benefits of medical testing.Objective. We hypothesized that there would be no difference in Hispanic vs. non-Hispanic patients’ knowledge of radiation risk that results from CT of the abdomen/pelvis (CTAP).Methods. We enrolled a convenience sample of adults at an inner-city emergency department (ED). Patients provided written answers to rate agreement on a 10-point scale for two correct statements comparing radiation exposure equality between: CTAP and 5 years of background radiation (question 1); CTAP and 200 chest x-rays (question 3). Patients also rated their agreement that multiple CT scans increase the lifetime cancer risk (question 2). Scores of >8 were considered good knowledge. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to estimate the independent effect of the Hispanic variable.Results. 600 patients in the study group; 63% Hispanic, mean age 39.2 ± 13.9 years. Hispanics and non-Hispanics whites were similar with respect to good knowledge-level answers to question 1 (17.3 vs. 15.1%; OR = 1.2; 95% CI [0.74–2.0]), question 2 (31.2 vs. 39.3%; OR = 0.76; 95% CI [0.54–1.1]), and question 3 (15.2 vs. 16.5%; OR = 1.1; 95% CI [0.66–1.8]). Compared to patients who earned 40,000 were more likely to answer question 2 with good knowledge (OR = 1.96; 95% CI [1.2–3.1]).Conclusion. The study group’s overall knowledge of radiation risk was poor, but we did not find significant differences between Hispanic vs. non-Hispanic patients.

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