Publication:

A survey to assess the knowledge of adverse drug reactions and pharmacovigilance practices among undergraduate medical students, interns and postgraduate students in a tertiary care hospital

Background The objective of the study was to evaluate the knowledge and attitude towards pharmacovigilance and adverse drug reaction (ADR) reporting among the undergraduates, interns and postgraduate students.

Methods This was a cross sectional study done among the undergraduates, interns and post graduate medical students at Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences, Hubballi using a pre-validated questionnaire that included 20 questions to evaluate the participants knowledge and perception of ADR and pharmacovigilance. The questionnaire was distributed to the participants (n=606) after taking their informed consent. The data was compiled and evaluated as percentages.

Results About 52% of the participants were aware of pharmacovigilance and 38.7% knew about the purpose of pharmacovigilance programme of India. 51% of the participants have experienced ADRs during their professional practice out of which 23% have reported to the pharmacovigilance centre. The most common barrier for under-reporting was lack of time to report ADR among 34% of the participants. 31% of the participants felt that managing patient was more important than reporting ADRs. 29% of the participants gave the reason as lack of access to ADR reporting forms. 25% of the participants had difficulty to decide whether ADR has occurred or not.

Conclusions Our study strongly suggests a greater need to create an awareness among undergraduate medical students, interns and postgraduate students to improve the reporting of ADRs.