Knowledge, attitude and practice of undergraduate medical students and interns towards pharmacovigilance

Abstract

Background: Medicines had brought revolution in which diseases are treated and controlled. There are several examples in which using nonstandard medicines had led to death of many patients.Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire based study in 200 undergraduate medical students, 150 medical students and 50 interns in a tertiary care hospital. There will be 50 each from II MBBS, III MBBS, IV MBBS and Interns.Results: The mean age was 23.68+1.64 years. In the elements of Pharmacovigilance, 5 students feel it is only detection, 4 for assessment, 1 for understanding, 5 for prevention and 142 (II:22, III:41, IV:36, Intern:43) all of the above elements while 43 don’t know about the elements of Pharmacovigilance. The factors that discourage from reporting ADR, among this did not know how to report was statistically significant compared to other factors. In students view on problems faced while reporting ADR, among them unawareness of the need to report an ADR and lengthy paper work were statistically significant. (69%) feel internet is the best reference aid to gather information on ADR to new medicines while (39.5%) prefer text books.Conclusions: The learning of PV should start as early as possible in medical school and should be frequently held to increase the Knowledge, attitude and practice of healthcare professionals regarding ADR’s monitoring.