Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of Pharmacovigilance among Healthcare Professionals in Brazil

Abstract

Background: Adverse Drug Events represent a public health problem with high morbidity and mortality rates around the world. Knowledge, attitudes and practices of health professionals toward pharmacovigilance and reporting these events are important factors to promote safe drug therapy use. Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate Knowledge, attitudes and practices of health professionals and reporting of Adverse Drug Events by health professionals in Brazil. Methods: across-sectional study with a pretested questionnaire available online on the website of the Brazilian drug regulatory agency. Pharmacovigilance related Knowledge, attitudes and practices and Adverse Drug Events reporting were evaluated and correlations were estimated. Results: In total, 761health professionals responded to the survey. The overall knowledge, attitudes and practices was of 57.7% for pharmacists, 56.9% for nurses and 40% for physicians 40% (considered to be a poor level). When evaluating performance by region, one physician (100%) from the South region and one nurse from the Central-West (83.3%) performed well on this indicator. Professionals in the age group older than 45 years and those with postgraduate degrees had the best performance in knowledge, attitudes and practices. The statistical analysis was performed with the software State version 15. Conclusion: The study identified knowledge, attitudes and practices deficiencies in pharmacovigilance and mapped its main weaknesses, which makes it possible to better delineate measures to address these challenges and improve the Brazilian national pharmacovigilance system.

A national survey of knowledge, attitude, practice, and barriers towards pharmacovigilance and adverse drug reaction reporting among hospital pharmacy practitioners in the United Arab Emirates

“…The study's findings showed that the majority of pharmacists were well-versed in the definitions of PV and ADRs. This result is consistent with other studies in Kuwait [ 13 ], Sudan [ 14 ], India [ 15 ], Brazil [ 10 ], Pakistan [ 6 , 16 ], Saudi Arabia [ 32 – 34 ] and UAE [ 17 ]. In opposition to these studies, other previous studies conducted in Ethiopia [ 11 ], India [ 1 ], and Saudi Arabia [ 12 , 35 ] indicated that pharmacists who participated in these studies had a low level of knowledge about PV and ADRs terminology.…”

“…The questionnaire for this study was developed after reviewing other studies on the same subject extensively [ 1 , 10 , 13 – 16 , 25 – 28 ] and after discussion among the co-authors.…”

“…Reporting ADRs is one of the main pharmacovigilance (PV) methods that aim to assure medications' safety and protection from harmful events [ 1 ]. It is critical for the early detection of serious and uncommon ADRs, as well as for guiding causality hypotheses, investigation priorities, and regulatory measures [ 10 ]. However, it depends on the adequate knowledge, attitude, and practices of the healthcare providers toward ADR reporting.…”

“…Previous studies conducted in different countries in this field reveal that there was a deficiency in the knowledge level about PV among pharmacists and more awareness about PV and ADRs reporting were needed [ 1 , 11 , 12 ]. On the other hand, other studies showed that pharmacists have enough knowledge about PV and ADRs reporting [ 6 , 10 , 13 – 17 ]. More studies found that, despite high levels of knowledge about PV and ADRs reporting, there was still underreporting, which was due to pharmacists' unfamiliarity with the reporting process or due to being unaware of the national ADR monitoring systems [ 6 , 9 , 12 , 13 , 18 – 20 ].…”

Relationship between Physical Activity and Medicine Use in the Spanish Population

“…In Japan, PA has been used as a predictor of the development of frailty in participants. Given that frailty represents a vulnerable physiological state, to the extent that PA improves this indicator, it decreases health care and thus polypharmacy [19].…”