Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Health Care Professionals Toward Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting in Hiwot Fana Specialized University Hospital, Harar, Eastern Ethiopia: A Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

This study was designed to assess knowledge, attitude and practices of adverse drug reaction reporting among healthcare professionals in Hiwot Fana Specialized University Hospital (HFSUH). Hospital based descriptive cross sectional study was conducted on healthcare professionals of HFSUH. Based on purposive sampling technique, all eligible healthcare professionals (nurses, physicians and pharmacists) were involved in the study. A pretested self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Data were coded, entered and analyzed using SPSS version 16. The test of association of selected categorical variables were done using cross tabulation and Pearson Chi-square test. Our study indicated that about 297 participants provided their response to the distributed questionnaires which makes the response rate 91.4%. Of the total healthcare professionals involved in the study, 99 (33.6%) of them were able to understand the difference between adverse drug reaction (ADR) and side effects, of which pharmacists were significantly reported (95.24%, P<0.05). About 175(59.3%) of the respondents engaged in the study were reportedly knew the national ADR reporting system in Ethiopia. On the other hand, 181(61.36%) of the participants were recognized the presence of ADR reporting form while 114 (38.64%) of the respondents had no any information about its presence in the country. The study revealed that a gap in knowledge, awareness and practice of healthcare professionals on ADR reporting. Therefore, specific strategies should be designed in order to improve awareness, knowledge and practice of healthcare professionals to tackle issue related to under-reporting of ADR.

Adverse drug event reporting by pharmacists: a systematic literature review

“…More working experience as a pharmacist was found to increase the odds of reporting in three studies but was not significant in other studies and was associated with better knowledge and attitude towards ADE and ADE reporting in one study and with reduced knowledge in other two studies. Increasing years of experience (10–14 years) increased the awareness about the presence of the national ADE reporting system . However, a recent study from Lebanon showed that younger pharmacists (staff pharmacists) have better training on reporting and higher reporting rates compared to chief pharmacists .…”

“…However, some studies show statistically significant differences between the healthcare professionals. Among studies that included other healthcare professionals, pharmacists were more likely to see an ADE and more likely to be aware about the existence of pharmacovigilance centres and reporting forms compared to doctors and nurses . No difference in the mean knowledge/attitudes was found between the three healthcare professional in some studies or reporting rate .…”

“…The number of pharmacist respondents in the eligible studies ranged from 10 to 1870 with a median of 179 (25th percentile = 87.8; 75th percentile = 331.25). Response rate ranges from as low as 10.5% to more than 90% . Most of the studies included in this review surveyed pharmacists working in hospital settings (either alone (27 studies) or with pharmacists working in community settings (19 studies)).…”

“…Response rate ranges from as low as 10.5% [25] to more than 90%. [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34] Most of the studies included in this review surveyed pharmacists working in hospital settings (either alone (27 studies) or with pharmacists working in community settings (19 studies)). Some of the studies surveyed only pharmacists working in community settings (18 studies).…”

“…Increasing years of experience (10-14 years) increased the awareness about the presence of the national ADE reporting system. [28] However, a recent study from Lebanon showed that younger pharmacists (staff pharmacists) have better training on reporting and higher reporting rates compared to chief pharmacists. [30] Workload and number of hours worked per week were found to have significant impact on willingness to report, though there was no consensus upon the specific number of hours.…”