Koreans’ per capita radiographic tests averaged 6.8 a year, showing a somewhat higher level of radiation exposure than other countries.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) recently released the latest data on the use of medical radiation for the three years from 2020 to 2022, which medical institutions used to diagnose diseases.

The report was the result of collecting the number of medical radiation examinations from 2020 to 2022 through the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, the National Health Insurance Service, the Ministry of Defense, the Korean Tuberculosis Association, and the Ministry of Education and evaluating the number of medical radiation examinations and doses by year by applying the doses for each type of medical radiation examination calculated through KDCA's policy research.

From 2020 to 2022, the number of annual medical radiation examinations used by the Korean population by year increased from more than 380 million in 2020 to more than 333 million in 2021 and more than 352 million in 2022, an increase of about 14.6 percent in 2022 compared to 2020.

The annual national population dose from medical radiation examinations also increased by about 11.2 percent in 2022 compared to 2020.

The per capita annual medical radiation examinations were 5.9 in 2020, 6.4 in 2021, and 6.8 in 2022. The radiation dose was 2.46 millisieverts in 2020, 2.64 millisieverts in 2021, and 2.75 millisieverts in 2022, somewhat higher than that of foreign countries. However, direct comparisons are limited due to differences in the level of health care in each country.

When looking at the utilization of medical radiation examinations by type in 2022, general radiography was the highest, with 282 million examinations and 5.5 per capita, accounting for 80.2 percent of the total, and CT was the highest, with 93,022 millisieverts and 1.80 millisieverts per capita, accounting for 65.6 percent of the total.

In the case of CT, the number of examinations accounted for only 3.8 percent of the total. However, the radiation dose accounted for 65.65 percent of the total, making it the imaging test with the highest radiation dose per examination, and it was evaluated that safety management should be paid attention to.

"To reduce unnecessary medical radiation exposure to the public, the government provides ‘Guidelines for Justification of Medical Imaging Diagnosis” that doctors can refer to when deciding on imaging examinations so that medical radiation is used appropriately when necessary," KDCA Commissioner Jee Young-mee said.

The KDCA will continue to strive to create an environment where people can confidently use medical radiation, Jee added.