Evaluation of a pharmacovigilance workshop using a pre-test and post-test questionnaire – Retrospective audit

Abstract

Background: It is estimated that only 6–10% of all adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are reported. Although India is participating in the pharmacovigilance program, its reporting is still in its initial stages. It is important to sensitize health-care professionals regarding ADR reporting and pharmacovigilance helping in better reporting. Educational interventions have been widely shown to be effective at improving the rate of ADR reporting among healthcare workers. Aims and Objectives: The primary objective of this study is to understand the knowledge of health-care professionals regarding ADR reporting and pharmacovigilance and also to know the effectiveness and outcome of the pharmacovigilance workshop. Materials and Methods: A retrospective audit of the data obtained from the workshops conducted on pharmacovigilance over 2 days in April 2023 was conducted after obtaining the requisite permission from the Institutional Ethics Committee. The workshops were conducted by the ADR monitoring center of Terna medical college, Nerul for the health-care professionals. A questionnaire consisting of 21 questions was used during the workshop for both pre-test and post-test. The questions tested the knowledge and attitude of health-care professionals. At the end of the session, feedback was taken regarding the workshop. The data were entered into Microsoft Excel and subjected to descriptive statistics. A paired t-test was done for the pre-test and post-test scores on Microsoft Excel. Results: In total, there were 67 participants in the workshop, 51 (76.12%) were nursing staff of different departments. Thirteen (19.4%) were duty medical officers, 1 (1.49%) was pharmacist and 2 (2.99%) were from pathology laboratory. A paired t-test was done for the pre-test and post-test marks of the participants, and the P-value was calculated to be 0.00000297 showing a statistically significant difference between the scores. About 92.53% agreed that it is important to report an ADR. About 71.64% agreed that reporting a known ADR still contributes to the system. Conclusion: The results of the present study demonstrate that the attitude of health-care professionals is positive regarding reporting an ADR. The improvement of the knowledge of the professionals was good after the workshop. It also concludes that workshops on pharmacovigilance and ADR reporting are necessary to increase awareness among health-care professionals on pharmacovigilance. ADR reporting is important to reduce the morbidity associated with the use of medications. There is a necessity to conduct interventions in the form of more workshops regularly to improve ADR reporting.