Abstract
Objectives: The purpose of the study is to investigate the knowledge and attitude towards radiation protection after radiation safety management education in dental hygiene students. Methods: After receiving informed consents, a self-reported questionnaire was carried out for 135 dental hygiene students in Busan on June 17 for preliminary survey and September 3 for post-education survey, 2011. The questionnaire was modified from Han and consisted of 5 questions of general characteristics, 6 questions of radiation use, 7 questions of scholastic characteristics, 15 questions of knowledge towards radiation safety management, and 15 questions of attitude towards radiation safety management. Cronbach's alpha was 0.808 in the knowledge towards radiation safety management. Attitude towards radiation safety management included 15 questions of general attitude towards radiation safety management, individual and patient, and attitude toward radiation exposure reduction measured by Likert 5 scale. Cronbach's alpha was 0.970 in the attitude towards radiation safety management. Data were analyzed using SAS version 9.2 for educational analysis, technical analysis and multivariate analysis, paired t-test, and GLM. Results: Significant differences were shown in the knowledge and attitudes towards radiation safety management; the level of knowledge was respectively $9.8{\pm}3.0$ and $12.9{\pm}1.9$ points before and after education, and the level of attitude was $4.28{\pm}0.51$ and $4.53{\pm}0.47$ before and after the education. The levels of knowledge and attitude according to general characteristics showed a significant differences in grade and academic results. Post-education survey suggested that the education is very important and necessary and can change the knowledge and attitude towards radiation safety management in the dental hygiene students. Conclusions: Through the radiation safety management education, the levels of knowledge and attitude towards radiation safety management have changed significantly, which showed that the radiation safety management education proved to be very effective. Therefore, an effective radiation safety management education program is necessary to improve the levels of knowledge and attitude towards radiation safety management in the dental hygiene students.
