Knowledge, attitude, and practice of pharmacovigilance among health-care professionals in an Indian tertiary care hospital

Abstract

Background: Adverse drug reaction (ADR) is any undesirable or unintended consequence of drug administration. Pharmacovigilance is the science and activities concerned with the monitoring of the safety of drugs. Underreporting of ADRs is a major challenge for pharmacovigilance programs. Aims and Objectives: (1) To assess knowledge, attitude, and practice of pharmacovigilance among health-care professionals working in tertiary care hospital. (2) To create awareness and strengthen the ongoing pharmacovigilance activities among health-care professionals. Materials and Methods: This is a questionnaire-based cross-sectional study conducted at BIMS Hospital Belagavi, Karnataka, India; A pre-designed and structured multiple choice questionnaire containing 23 questions was used to assess knowledge of pharmacovigilance, attitude toward ADR reporting, the practice of pharmacovigilance and their suggestions to improve ADR reporting (Q no.23). Questionnaire was distributed among 150 doctors working in the hospital. Results: 133 doctors responded to the questionnaire. 124 (93.23%) were aware of the purpose of reporting ADR. 55 (41.35%) had an opinion that ADR reporting should be voluntary. 46.62% of subjects believed that the identity of the reporter can be revealed. 86.47% of doctors had seen patients experiencing ADR, and 27.07% maintained a record of it and reported it to the ADR monitoring center. To improve the knowledge, attitude, and practice, the majority of participants suggested conducting training and continuing medical education for all health professionals. Conclusion: Doctors have good knowledge and attitude towards pharmacovigilance program, but there is underreporting of ADRs. Creating awareness among all health-care professionals, motivating them to report ADRs through training, and providing ADR reporting forms to hospital wards may improve the outcome.