Abstract
PurposeAdverse drug reactions (ADRs) have an appreciable impact on patients’ health. Little is known however about ADR reporting in ambulatory care environments especially in low- and middle-income countries. Consequently, our aim was to determine knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) among health care professionals (HCPs) towards ADR reporting in primary health care (PHC) facilities in South Africa. The findings will be used to direct future activities.MethodsDescriptive, cross-sectional design using quantitative methodology among 8 public sector community health care centres and 40 PHC clinics in the Tshwane Health District, Gauteng Province. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 218 HCPs, including all key groups.ResultsA total of 200 responses were received (91.7%). Although an appropriate attitude towards ADR reporting existed, the actual frequency of ADR reporting was low (16.0%). Of the respondents, 60.5% did not know how to report, where to report or when to report an ADR and 51.5% said the level of their clinical knowledge made it difficult to decide whether or not an ADR had occurred. Over 97.5% stated they should be reporting ADRs with 89% feeling that ADR reporting is a professional obligation and over 70% that ADR reporting should be compulsory. When results were combined, the overall mean score in terms of positive or preferred practices for ADR reporting was 24.6% with pharmacists having the highest scores.ConclusionUnder-reporting of ADRs with gaps in KAP was evident. There is a serious and urgent need for education and training of HCPs on ADR reporting in South Africa.
Highlights
Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are a major public health problem that causes increased mortality, morbidity and costs, including increased hospital admissions and length of stay [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]
Physicians, pharmacists, dentists and nurses are in a position to play a key role in pharmacovigilance programmes; under-reporting of ADRs is common across countries especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) [10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18]
Health care professionals (HCPs), especially in LMICs, should work together to remove barriers to ADR reporting across sectors and establish effective pharmacovigilance systems [15, 17, 19,20,21,22,23,24]
Summary
Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are a major public health problem that causes increased mortality, morbidity and costs, including increased hospital admissions and length of stay [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]. Health care professionals (HCPs), especially in LMICs, should work together to remove barriers to ADR reporting across sectors and establish effective pharmacovigilance systems [15, 17, 19,20,21,22,23,24] This includes physicians, pharmacists and nurses in ambulatory care in LMICs including South Africa [25,26,27,28,29]. Such activities should result in safety signals being detected at an earlier stage, leading to better and quicker decisions about medicine use This cooperation means improved notification and recording of ADRs in ambulatory care where the majority of patients receive their medicines
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