Publication:

Knowledge, attitude and practice of medical professionals towards adverse drug reaction reporting and pharmacovigilance in a tertiary care hospital: a cross sectional study

Background The present study was planned to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of healthcare providers regarding adverse drug reaction reporting and pharmacovigilance in a tertiary care hospital.

Methods The study was conducted in a tertiary care teaching hospital, it’s a observational, KAP cross-sectional questionnaire-based study. The KAP questionnaires was developed toward pharmacovigilance and ADRs and were used to assess the medical professionals.

Results Only 64% of doctors, 52% PG’s and 40% of nurses knew the correct knowledge regarding Pharmacovigilance (PhV). Regarding the attitude, all the respondents think reporting of ADR is a very necessary. 98% of doctors,80% of postgraduates and 96% of nurses have experienced ADR in the patient in their professional practice but reporting of same is very less. The factors discouraging them from reporting ADR’s was also assessed. 34% said difficult to decide whether ADR has occurred or not, 34% said lack of time, 17%- no remuneration and 15% said a single unreported case may not affect ADR database.

Conclusions This study demonstrated that knowledge and attitude towards pharmacovigilance is gradually improving among medical professionals, but unfortunately the actual practice of ADR reporting is still deficient among them.