Radiation Exposure through Private Health Examinations in Korea

Hyun-Jong Kim; Jung-Won Kim; Soo-Hyung Lee; Joo-Yeon Kim; Moo-Young Kim

doi:10.15384/kjhp.2015.15.3.136

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Kim, Kim, Lee, Kim, and Kim: Radiation Exposure through Private Health Examinations in Korea

Original Article

Korean J Health Promot 2015;15(3):136-140.

Published online: 19 December 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15384/kjhp.2015.15.3.136

Radiation Exposure through Private Health Examinations in Korea

Hyun-Jong Kim, Jung-Won Kim, Soo-Hyung Lee, Joo-Yeon Kim, Moo-Young Kim

Department of Family Medicine, Seoul Medical Center, Seoul, Korea

￭ Corresponding author：Moo-Young Kim, MD Department of Family Medicine, Seoul Medical Center, 156 Sinnae-ro, Jungnang-gu, Seoul 02053, Korea Tel: +82-2-2276-8673, Fax: +82-2-2276-8533 E-mail: moowija@hanmail.net

Received 2 March 2015 Accepted 25 August 2015

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Background

Due to the increase in general health examination centers, health examination programs are becoming more diversified in Korea. Some of the general health examination tests, such as computed tomography, result in substantial levels of radiation exposure. However, the amount of radiation exposure from these examinations has not been studied in Korea. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the level of radiation exposure from general health examinations.

Methods

Through the Korean Hospitals Association website and portal sites, 296 general health examination facilities were included in the study. The information about whether radiation-related tests are included in the health examination program of each facility was collected from their internet website. The radiation exposure dose for each test was obtained from the Database Construction Report by the Korean Institute of Nuclear Safety.

Results

The mean base exposure dose of health examination programs from 296 health facilities was 2.49±2.50 mSv. The mean maximum exposure dose was 14.82±9.55 mSv (maximum 40.1 mSv). The maximum exposure dose was the highest at university-associated hospitals (21.63±7.54 mSv) and lowest at hospitals with ≤30 beds (7.84±7.64 mSv). The contribution of computed tomography on the maximum exposure dose was the highest of all examinations (72%).

Conclusions

This study verified that examinees are exposed to substantial levels of radiation during general health examinations. It is necessary to establish evidence-based screening programs considering radiation exposure during general health examinations.

Keywords: Radiation, Health examination, Tomography, X-ray computed

REFERENCES

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Figure 1.

Contribution of each examination on maximum effective dose. Abbreviations: PET, positron emission tomography; CT, computed tomography; UGI, upper gastrointestinal series.

Table 1.

General characteristics of the health examination centers

Variable	Classification	The number of samples	Percentage
Area of hospitals	Seoul	86	29.1
	Gyeonggi	46	15.5
	Metropolitan city	81	27.4
	Others	83	28.0
Type of hospitals^a	University hospitals	56	18.9
	General hospitals	118	39.9
	Hospitals	100	33.8
	Specialized clinics	22	7.4
Available CT		245	82.8
Available CT and PET		75	25.3

Abbreviations: CT, computed tomography; PET, positron emission tomography.

^a General hospitals: medical facilities with more than 100 beds; Hospitals: medical facilities with more than 30 beds; Clinics: medical facilities only for outpatients.

Table 2.

Radiation exposure dose according to the area of the health examination center^a

Variable	Area of hospital				P^b
Variable	Seoul (n=86)	Gyeonggi (n=46)	Metropolitan city (n=81)	Others (n=83)	P^b
Base exposure dose (mSv)	1.92±1.38	2.37±3.10	2.65±2.08	2.98±3.22	0.049
Maximum exposure dose (mSv)	15.54±10.60	14.31±7.45	15.07±10.24	14.14±8.81	0.895

Abbreviation: mSv, milliSieverts.

^a Values are presented as mean±SD.

^b Calculated by Kruskal-Wallis test.

Table 3.

Radiation exposure dose according to the type of hospital^a

Variable	Type of hospital^d				P
Variable	University hospitals (n=56)	General hospitals (n=118)	Hospitals (n=100)	Clinics for medical examination (n=22)	P
Base exposure dose (mSv)	2.78±2.05	2.59±2.23	2.14±3.18	2.81±0.60	<0.001^b
Maximum exposure dose (mSv)	21.63±7.54	16.61±8.45	7.84±7.64	19.75±7.76	<0.001^b
Available CT	55 (98.2)	111 (94.1)	57 (100.0)	22 (100.0)	<0.001^c
Available PET	38 (67.9)	25 (21.2)	3 (100.0)	9 (40.9)	<0.001^c

Abbreviations: mSv, milliSieverts; CT, computed tomography; PET, positron emission tomography.

^a Values are presented as N (%) or mean±SD.

^b Calculated by Kruskal-Wallis test.

^c Calculated by Chi-square test.

^d General hospitals: medical facilities with more than 100 beds; Hospitals: medical facilities with more than 30 beds; Clinics: medical facilities only for outpatients.

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