Reporting Adverse Drug Reactions: Evaluations of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice among Community Pharmacists in UAE

Abstract

In United Arab Emirates (UAE), the pharmacovigilance (PV) program is in the stage of initiation therefore the success of such a program depends upon the participation of the health care professionals. No study has been found regarding the role of the community pharmacist as a health care provider in monitoring drug safety after marketing. This study aimed to evaluate the knowledge, attitudes and practice (KAP) toward adverse drug reactions (ADRs ) reporting among community pharmacists (CPs) in Ajman and Sharjah, UAE. Evaluating the baseline KAP of the CPs regarding ADRs reporting can be useful in providing information for the progress of a PV program in UAE. An interview questionnaire was delivered to 300 CPs in Ajman and Sharjah cities. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 was used for data analysis. Only 4.9% of respondents had good ADRs reporting knowledge, while the majority of pharmacists 93.7% had a positive attitude towards ADRs reporting. Forty four percent of the pharmacists were not alert about ADRs reporting program in UAE. Only 3.6 % of the enrolled pharmacists submitted ADRs report and only 11.2% had good practice score. The results of our study clearly point out that in spite of the community pharmacists positive attitude there was a lack of appropriate knowledge and practice to implement ADRs reporting successfully. The results emphasized the critical need for interventions to support ADRs reporting activity and to maintain CPs positive attitude.