The Journal of

Introduction: Patients should be aware of the risks of ionizing radiation used in medical imaging procedures to make appropriate decisions about the diagnosis and treatment of their disease. The aim of this study was to assess the awareness of radiation risks associated to radiological and CT scans tests among the referring patients to imaging centers of Yazd hospitals.

Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 251 patients during April to May 2014. The questionnaire with 33 questions included questions on demographic information, knowledge about different methods of imaging and associated probable risks, and patient expectations was designed and distributed among patients and they were asked to complete them.

Results: The mean score of patients’ awareness was 56.21% with a standard deviation of 16.78%. Significant relationship between age, gender and educational degree of the patients with their knowledge was observed. While 95.6% of patients were expecting their doctor to explain them about the benefits and risks of each test but only 6% of physicians explained this topic to them.

Conclusion: Patients’ knowledge can play an important role in reduction of unnecessary imaging tests but despite a strong desire in patients for obtaining awareness, their knowledge in this topic is not satisfactory. Therefore some strategies should be applied to increase the patients’ awareness