Perceived risk of exposure to indoor residential radon and its relationship to willingness to test among health care providers in Tehran

Background: radon exposure is the second cause of lung cancer after exposure to tobacco smoke and the firstcause in nonsmokers. the purpose of this study was to assess perceived risk of exposure to indoor residential radonamong health care providers in urban and rural health centers affiliated to tehran university of medical sciences.method: in 2012–2013, a survey was carried out on 462 health care providers to assess their awareness and riskperception about exposure to indoor residential radon. only subjects who had previously heard about radon wereasked to answer knowledge-based and risk perception questions and report source of knowledge, willingness totest and willingness to pay for radon test kits.results: about 67% of responders had heard about radon before this study and of these, 83.5 % recognized it asbeing hazardous and 34.5 % identified lung cancer as the main health outcome of exposure to radon. overall, 33%of 310 subjects had knowledgeable awareness. seventy percent of responders who had previously heard aboutradon, had high perceived risk and they were more willing to test their houses and more willing to pay for radontest kits.conclusion: having knowledge about radon and perceiving it as a risk had a significant association with willing totake relevant health related behaviors. furthermore, risk perception contributes to willing to spend more moneywhen health is a concern. education of health care providers seems to be a pre-requisite to public campaigns onradon awareness and testing.