Pharmacovigilance awareness among the teaching staffs of a medical college in Karnataka: a cross sectional study

Abstract

Background: Pharmacovigilance deals with adverse drug reactions and required for early detection and prevention of drug-related morbidity and mortality. The objective of the present is to evaluate the Pharmacovigilance awareness among the teaching staffs of a private medical college in Karnataka. Methodology: A cross sectional, questionnaire based study was conducted in a private medical college of Karnataka. A total of 219 (n=219) medical staffs were participated in this study. Participation in this study was purely on voluntary basis. The questionnaire form was validated by two subject experts prior to the study. A preformed questionnaire form was distributed to all the teaching staffs of medical college and requested them to fill accordingly. All the participants filled the forms completely. Results: The results were analyzed by using SPS software. Statistical analysis was done by chi square test. Most of the teaching staffs (55.3%) heard about Pharmacovigilance, 69% of teaching staff wants to report adverse reactions, 55% teaching staffs undergone training on reporting of ADR, 40% staff wants to report ADR to pharmaceutical company, 31% of staff knows about Pharmacovigilance work structure in India and 48% of teaching staff knows about classification of ADR. But, only 22% of teaching staff attended Pharmacovigilance training programme and the rest 78% of teaching staff willing to undergo training for Pharmacovigilance. Conclusion: This study revealed that majority of the teaching staff knows about Pharmacovigilance and wants to know more about the functioning and structure of Pharmacovigilance in India, in order to prevent adverse drug reactions in patients. Key words: Pharmacovigilance, Adverse drug reactions, Questionnaire form, Cross sectional study, Teaching staff