Abstract

EVALUATION OF KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE OF PHARMACOVIGILANCE AND ADVERSE DRUG REACTION REPORTING AMONG THE PRESCRIBERS AND NURSES IN A TERTIARY CARE TEACHING HOSPITAL OF NORTHERN INDIA

Afroz Abidi*, Ali Ahmad, S.K. Gupta, Dilshad Ali Rizvi, Sukhpreet Singh

Abstract

Objectives: The current study aimed to determine the status of knowledge, attitude and practice towards pharmacovigilance and ADR reporting in our teaching hospital.Material & Methods: This study was a cross- sectional questionnaire based survey conducted in our tertiary care teaching hospital of North India. Study instrument was a self developed, pre-validated questionnaire consisting of a total of 26 questions. The target respondents were doctors, residents and nurses. Results: A total of 228 questionnaires were considered for analysis, giving a response rate of 64.04%. The highest response rate was seen in residents i.e 53.94%. In our study 61.4% subjects were aware about pharmacovigilance but only 59.6% knew the importance of pharmacovigilance. The attitude of all the respondents was positive towards ADR reporting and a large number 73.2% thought that ADR reporting is necessary. The reporting rate in our institute was only 27.63% and the main reasons attributed for non reporting/under-reporting were lack of awareness of how to report and where to report, paucity of time, indifference, diffidence and non remuneration. Conclusion: Under-reporting is a grave problem in our institute also similar to other colleges of India. Increasing awareness by regular CME’s, symposiums, distribution of booklets, newsletters, display of posters across the hospital withhelpline numbers will help in better understanding and can improve the reporting status of ADR’s.

Keywords: Pharmacovigilance, adverse drug reaction, knowledge, attitude, practice.