A cross-sectional study on the knowledge, attitude, and practices of pharmacovigilance among health-care professionals at a tertiary care teaching hospital

Abstract

Background: Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are significantly underreported and pose a major problem of concern globally. Pharmacovigilance programs are mandatory to detect and prevent ADR. It is important for every health-care professional to know the importance of ADR reporting. Aim and Objective: This study aims to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAPs) toward pharmacovigilance and ADRs reporting among health-care professionals at a tertiary level teaching hospital. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire-based observational study was carried out on health-care professionals after getting approval from the Institutional Ethics Committee. The KAP questionnaire toward pharmacovigilance was adapted from the previous studies and consisted of 21 questions in total. Results: A total number of 150 health-care professionals participated and completed the questionnaire. The responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics. A total of 92.67% health-care professionals agreed that reporting of ADR is necessary. About 96% had a difficulty in reporting ADR of which most of them (75%) did not know where to report. There was a huge gap between the ADR encountered (83.3%) and ADR reported (4.7%) by health-care professionals. Conclusion: Majority of the health-care professionals had an above average knowledge and a positive attitude toward the need for ADR reporting. In spite of that, the reporting rate of ADRs by them is very low. This emphasizes the need for a periodical, intense and continuous training programs, and workshops on pharmacovigilance for health-care professionals which will definitely play an important role in improving pharmacovigilance activities in our hospital.