Publication:

Knowledge, attitude and practice towards adverse drug reactions reporting in post graduate students of a tertiary care hospital

Background Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) are a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Under reporting of ADRs by health care professionals is a very common problem worldwide. So, the present study was planned to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of postgraduate (PG) students towards ADR reporting and suggest possible ways for improvement.

Methods It was a cross sectional questionnaire-based study conducted among 44 PG students using a questionnaire with questions on knowledge (21), attitude (13) and practices (15) of ADR reporting. The questionnaire was analyzed question wise and the percentage was calculated using Microsoft Excel spreadsheet in Microsoft Office 2010 software.

Results Most of them were aware of the term pharmacovigilance (PV) (95.45%). 54.55% agreed to be trained on how to report an ADR. 88.63% knew about the existence of pharmacovigilance committee in the institute.93% of participants knew that Central Drug Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) is responsible for monitoring of ADRs. 56.82% were aware about VIGIBASE an online software to report ADR. 81.82% of participants had agreed to witness ADRs in patients but only 38.64% reported them. The main reason behind it was non – availability of ADR forms. 42.55% opine that mobile based app would be the most preferred method to send ADR information to an ADR reporting center.

Conclusions There exists a huge gap between ADR experienced and ADR reported by PG students. Participants agreed upon necessity of reporting ADR and periodic briefing about PV.