Background The adequate knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of pharmacovigilance and ADRs reporting is crucial for health care students. Objective This study aimed at assessing the KAP of final-year medical, pharmacy, and nursing (MPN) students towards pharmacovigilance and ADRs reporting at the University of Gondar, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Northwest Ethiopia. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted among 296 final-year MPN students at the University of Gondar College of Medicine and Health Sciences from November 1, 2020 to January 30, 2021. A close-ended, structured, self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection prospectively. SPSS ® (IBM Corporation) version 24 was used to analyze the data with descriptive and inferential statistics. The comparison of the KAP of groups was made by using a Kruskal–Wallis test and Mann–Whitney U -test. Statistical significance was declared at a p-value < 0.05. Results Among 296 participants, the majority of them had a poor level of knowledge (69.9%), practice (95.9%), and moderate attitude (62.5%) towards pharmacovigilance and ADRs reporting. The median (interquartile range) score of the students’ knowledge (maximum score = 15), attitude (maximum score = 50), and practice (maximum score = 5) towards PV and ADR reporting was 6 (5–8), 32 (28.25–35), and 1 (0–1), respectively. The KAP of the students has shown differences with age, sex, hearing of the term PV, and discipline. A lack of training on ADRs (49%) reporting and not knowing where and how to report ADRs (47.3%) were among the main reasons of MPN students for not reporting ADRs. Conclusion A majority of final-year MPN students had poor knowledge, practice, and a moderate attitude towards PV and ADRs reporting. The school of medicine, pharmacy, and nursing should adequately cover the issue of PV and ADRs reporting in the undergraduate curriculum.

Background A prolonged length of hospital stay during heart failure-related hospitalization results in frequent readmission and high mortality. The study was aimed to determine the length of hospital stays and associated factors among heart failure patients. Methods A prospective hospital-based cross-sectional study was carried out to determine the length of hospital stay and associated factors among heart failure patients admitted to the medical ward of the University of Gondar Comprehensive Specialized Hospital from January 2019 to June 2020. Multiple linear regression was used to identify factors associated with length of hospital stay and reported with a 95% Confidence Interval (CI). P-value ≤ 0.05 was considered as statistically significant to declare the association. Result A total of 263 heart failure patients (mean age: 51.08 ± 19.24 years) were included. The mean length of hospital stay was 17.29 ± 7.27 days. Number of comorbidities (B = 1.494, p < 0.001), admission respiratory rate (B = -0.242, p = 0.009), serum potassium (B = -1.525, p = 0.005), third heart sound (B = -4.118, p = 0.005), paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea (B = 2.494, p = 0.004), causes of acute heart failure; hypertensive heart disease (B = -6.349, p = 0.005), and precipitating factors of acute heart failure; infection (B = 2.867, p = 0.037) were significantly associated with length of hospital stay. Number of comorbidities, paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea, and precipitating factors of AHF specifically infection were associated with a prolonged length of hospital stay. Conclusion Heart failure patients admitted to the medical ward had prolonged hospital stays. Thus, clinicians would be aware of the clinical features contributing to the longer hospital stay and implementation of interventions or strategies that could reduce the heart failure patient’s hospital stay is necessary.

BackgroundEvaluating the medicine burden from the patients’ perspective is essential for getting good health outcomes of diabetes mellitus (DM) management. However, data are limited regarding this sensitive area. Thus, the study was aimed to determine the medication-related burden (MRB) and associated factors among DM patients at Felege Hiwot Comprehensive Specialized Hospital (FHCSH) in northwest Ethiopia.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted on 423 systematically selected DM patients attending the DM clinic of FHCSH from June to August 2020. The medication-related burden was measured by using the Living with Medicines Questionnaire version 3 (LMQ-3). Multiple linear regression was used to identify factors associated with medication-related burden and reported with 95% confidence interval (CI). p-value &lt;0.05 was considered as statistically significant to declare an association.ResultsThe mean LMQ-3 score was 126.52 ( ± 17.39). The majority of the participants experienced moderate (58.9%, 95% CI: 53.9–63.7) to high (26.2%, 95% CI: 22.5–30.0) degrees of medication burden. Nearly half (44.9%, 95% CI: 39.9–49.7) of the participants were non-adherent to their prescribed medications. VAS score (B = 12.773, p = 0.001), ARMS score (B = 8.505, p = 0.001), and fasting blood glucose (FBS) on visit (B = 5.858, p = 0.003) were significantly associated with high medication-related burden.ConclusionA significant number of patients suffered from high medication-related burden and non-adherence to long-term medicine. Therefore, multidimensional intervention to decrease MRB and to upgrade adherence is required to increase patients’ quality of life.