Effect of Radiation Protection Module on Knowledge, Attitude and Practice among Radiation Workers in Ministry of Health Facilities Negeri Sembilan and Malacca

The aim of this study is to develop, implement and evaluate the effectiveness of an educational intervention module based on Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) on the level of knowledge, attitude, and practice of radiation protection among radiation worker in the Ministry of Health facilities Negeri Sembilan and Malacca.

a two-armed, single-blinded, parallel, randomised, controlled field trial, with pre-intervention and post-intervention evaluation.

34 healthcare facilities in Negeri Sembilan and Malacca. responded and field supervisor is blinded

Inclusion Criteria: a) A radiation worker with a minimum of 1-year of working experience in health services. b) A radiation worker, who are provided with a dosimeter by the employer. c) A radiation worker, who is working in the radiology department under the Department of Health, Negeri Sembilan and Department of Health, Malacca facilities. Exclusion Criteria: a) A radiation worker in the Department of Health, Negeri Sembilan and Department of Health, Malacca, who was absent during data collection 3 times. b) A radiation worker in the Department of Health, Negeri Sembilan and Department of Health, Malacca, who was not complete answering self-administered questionnaire during data collection.

The intervention group consisted of radiology staffs that will be trained on ; • 2-hour interactive talk session consist of the principle, fundamental, epidemiology, prevalence, causes, consequences and prevention of radiation hazard. • Short videos related to radiation protection • Pamphlet. • Collateral as a reminder (WhatsApp) The control group consisting of radiology staffs that will be trained on a 2-hour interactive talk on radiation protection by their state physicist.

Level of knowledge, attitude and practice of radiation protection

Random allocation of radiation worker to either intervention or control arms were conducted by dividing in opaque envelopes containing colour-coded cards (white for ‘controls’, red for ‘intervention’ groups). Both State Physicist in the Department of Health Negeri Sembilan and the Department of Health Malacca were randomly picked the envelopes which divided the respondents into intervention and control arms. In each state, the radiation worker in the Participants’ Name List will be number coded by the researcher. Only the researcher had access to the radiation workers’ names and the codes and is solely responsible for the safekeeping and confidentiality of all the records. For concealment of allocation, both state physicist from the Department of Health, Negeri Sembilan and Department of Health, Malacca did not know their group allocation. After randomisation complete, the researcher has done systematic random sampling in each group to achieve 79 respondent in each arm. Then, State Physicist invited radiation worker in the intervention group to attend the intervention programme. Thus one of the states was the intervention arm and the remaining state was control arms.

A single-blinded technique was employed where the participating radiation worker and the State Physicists were unaware of their group allocation. During the recruitment of radiation worker, prior to the randomisation, all participating radiation workers were informed that the intervention module was provided by the group and stage of study to all participating radiation worker. Thus, the radiation worker was unaware of the group allocation throughout the study. Blinding of the radiation worker was done because awareness of being in the control group might influence their answers in the questionnaires.

The data is private and confidential. Most respondent denied sharing their data