Pharmacist's Awareness and Knowledge of Reporting Adverse Drug Reactions in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Objectives: Pharmacovigilance is considered a useful tool in detecting, assessing, understanding and preventing Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) to ensure the safety of medications and protect consumers from ADRs. Consequently, the progression and expansion of pharmacovigilance is urgent for safe and effective clinical practice; therefore, in this study, we aimed to compare the awareness and knowledge of the community and hospital pharmacists toward reporting ADRs in different regions of Saudi Arabia. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted from January 2016 to March 2016 in Saudi Arabia. A validated and structured questionnaire was distributed by hand or via Internet to 263 hospital and community pharmacists. The questionnaire collected pharmacists' demographic information and pharmacists' understanding and knowledge of the pharmacovigilance system and reporting of ADRs. Results: A total of 263 pharmacists responded to the questionnaire with 208 (79.09%) pharmacists from hospital pharmacy sites and 55 (20.91%) pharmacists from community pharmacy responding to the questionnaire. There is a significant difference in the pharmacovigilance concept (p<0.05) between the hospital and community pharmacists. Most community pharmacists were unfamiliar with the existence of a pharmacovigilance center in Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, community pharmacists were unaware of where they could get an ADR reporting form, but hospital pharmacists were aware of this (p<0.05). Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrated that pharmacists who work at hospitals among different regions in Saudi Arabia had a higher awareness of the pharmacovigilance system than that of community pharmacists who worked at the community pharmacy.

A National Survey of Community Pharmacists’ Viewpoints About Pharmacovigilance and Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting in Saudi Arabia

“…In contrast to studies conducted in Al Riyadh and Ash Sharqiyah, our study shows that community pharmacists have high awareness and knowledge regarding pharmacovigilance and methods of reporting ADRs (Bawazir, 2006;Khan, 2013;Mahmoud et al, 2014;AlRuthia et al, 2018;Al Doughan et al, 2019). Most of the respondents had 5-10 years of working experience with a full-time contract and had served more than 100 patients/customers daily.…”

A survey on student pharmacists' knowledge, attitude and perceptions about drug and poison information elective rotation in Saudi Arabia

“…During an emergency, providing quality information within a stipulated time could be life-saving (Al Doughan, Alomi, & Iflaifel, 2019). Still, the pre-rotation survey revealed that 84% of the student pharmacists felt they could respond at their own pace.…”

Assessing the impact of structured education on the knowledge of hospital pharmacists about adverse drug reactions and reporting methods in Saudi Arabia: an open-label randomised controlled trial

“…The effectiveness of the educational intervention in improving the mean knowledge score of pharmacists about ADRs underscores the importance of providing explicit education to pharmacists about ADRs at both undergraduate and practice level. Topics related to pharmacovigilance are not given due share in the curricula offered by the majority of institutions offering medicine, pharmacy or nursing programmes in Saudi Arabia [7]. This could be explained by the lack of availability of enough qualified staff trained in pharmacovigilance and medication safety in Saudi Arabia [6].…”

“…The under-reporting of ADRs could be partly attributed to the lack of awareness and understanding of ADRs by healthcare professionals in Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional study conducted to assess the knowledge of pharmacists about ADRs in Saudi Arabia reported inadequate knowledge and understanding about pharmacovigilance [7]. More than half of the participants of the study, including pharmacists, doctors and nurses, were not even aware of the correct definition of pharmacovigilance.…”