Assessment of knowledge, attitude and practice of pharmacovigilance and adverse drug reactions reporting among the community pharmacies in Dharan

Abstract

<p class="abstract"><strong>Background:</strong> Community pharmacist’s (CPs) knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of pharmacovigilance and adverse drug reactions (ADR) play a vital role in preventing harmful effects of medicine. The objective was to assess the KAP of pharmacovigilance and ADR reporting among CP.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods:</strong> A cross-sectional study was carried out among 132 CP in Dharan between February-March 2019 by using a self-administered 25-item semi-structured questionnaire. The KAP score was categorized as good (score 13-25) and poor (score 0-12). The descriptive statistics were calculated using Microsoft excel 2010.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Results:</strong> Out of 132 pharmacies, only 77 responded giving a response rate of 58.3%. There were 45 (58.4%) male. Majority of the participants (45, 58.4%) had completed diploma in pharmacy course. Only 23 (29.9%) respondents gave the correct responses regarding the definition of pharmacovigilance and 23.4% were aware of the national pharmacovigilance centre. 50.9% agreed that reporting of ADRs is a part of pharmacist duty and it was important to report ADRs and was leading cause of hospitalization. Sixty three (81.8%) participants had never ever been trained on how to report ADR. Seventy (90.9%) participants were willing to report ADR, however, 51 (66.2%) had never seen the ADR reporting form. Only 3 (3.9%) participants had good KAP score (23.33±1.54).</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Conclusions:</strong> Despite of relatively better attitude towards pharmacovigilance and ADR reporting, they had a limited knowledge and practice with regard to ADR reporting and pharmacovigilance. The study findings highlights the need to strengthen the community pharmacovigilance program for safer medication use at the community level.</p>