Abstract
Background The role of health care professionals among other stakeholders in early detection, assessment, documentation, and reporting as well as preventing suspected adverse reactions is very crucial to mitigate drug-related problems in health facilities. Previous reports from literatures have indicated that adverse drug reaction reporting is highly linked to the knowledge and attitude of the health care professionals. Objective To assess knowledge, attitude, and practice of health care professionals about adverse drug reactions and the associated factors at selected public hospitals in Northeast Ethiopia. Methods A hospital-based quantitative cross-sectional study design was employed. A structured self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data on KAP of selected health care providers by the convenience sampling method. Data were entered into Epi info version 3.5.3 and analyzed using SPSS Version 20. Association between dependent and independent variables was found by using bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis where p < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results Out of 120 questionnaires distributed, 114 respondents filled and returned, giving a 95% response rate. From total, 49 (43%) were nurses, 26 (22.8%) physicians, 17 (14.9%) pharmacy professionals, 12 (10.5%) health officers, and 10 (8.8%) midwives. About 86 (75.44%) study participants had an inadequate knowledge towards ADR reporting, and half of participants failed to report the adverse drug reactions they encountered. But the majority of participants (84, 73.68%) had a favorable attitude towards ADR reporting. Nurses [AOR = 0.069, 95% CI (0.018–0.275)], health officers [AOR = 0.10, 95% CI (0.015–0.647)], and physicians [AOR = 0.14, 95% CI (0.03–0.64)] were found to be less likely to have adequate knowledge on ADR reporting compared to pharmacy professionals. Conclusion Even though the majority of health care professionals had a positive attitude, they had inadequate knowledge and poor practice towards ADR reporting.
Highlights
Several numbers of drugs are brought into the market everyday; the safety of medicines remains to be a major concern for various population groups due to inadequate knowledge
Sociodemographic Characteristics. e study was conducted in Kemisse General Hospital (KGH) and Ataye Primary Hospital (APH) among 114 health care professionals (HCPs) to assess KAP towards adverse drug reaction (ADR) reporting
The knowledge of HCPs on ADR reporting was low with only 24.56% of the HCPs having adequate knowledge (Figure 2). is result was consistent with similar studies; 21.1% respondents in Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital (TASH), Addis Ababa [14], 23.17% in Southwest Ethiopia [16], 33.33% in Northeast Ethiopia [17], and 34.2% in Amhara region, Ethiopia [12], had adequate knowledge about ADR reporting
Summary
Several numbers of drugs are brought into the market everyday; the safety of medicines remains to be a major concern for various population groups due to inadequate knowledge. ADRs can be predictable and dose related, unpredictable and nondose related, both dose and time related, time related (delayed reactions), withdrawal reactions, and unexpected reactions due to treatment failure [2,3]. Adverse reactions to medicines are a common cause of morbidity, hospital admissions, longer hospital stay, disability, and even mortality [4]. They have a major impact on public health but they reduce patients’ quality of life and impose a significant financial cost in the health care delivery system [5,6]
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