title: Patient understanding of radiation risk from medical computed tomography-A comparison of Hispanic vs. non-Hispanic emergency department populations.
abstract: 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 <20,000, patients with income >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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Christus Spohn/Texas A&M School of Medicine , Corpus Christi, TX , USA.
authors.forename: Afton
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: McNierney-Moore
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Christus Spohn/Texas A&M School of Medicine , Corpus Christi, TX , USA.
authors.forename: Cynthia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Texas A&M University/Corpus Christi , Corpus Christi, TX , USA.
authors.forename: Jose
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Guardiola
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center , Lubbock, TX , USA.
authors.forename: K Tom
authors.initials: KT
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Christus Spohn/Texas A&M School of Medicine , Corpus Christi, TX , USA.
authors.forename: Peter B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Richman
keywords: CT; Patient knowledge; Radiation risk