Adverse drug reaction reporting among health care workers at Mulago National Referral and Teaching hospital in Uganda

Abstract

Background: Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) are an important contributor to patient morbidity and hospitalisation in Uganda. Under-reporting of ADRs may increase medicine-induced morbidity and mortality among patients. This study determined the extent of ADR reporting, and associated factors, among healthcare workers in Uganda. Methods: A quantitative, cross-sectional, study was conducted. Pretested, semi-structured questionnaires were administered to 289 randomly sampled healthcare workers over a three-month period in Mulago National Referral Hospital, Uganda. The primary outcome was the proportion of healthcare workers who had ever reported an ADR. Data was double-entered in Epidata version 3.0, cleaned and exported to STATA version 10.1 for analysis. Results: The overall response rate was 77.2% (n=223). The majority of the respondents were females (139, 62.3%). The median age of all respondents was 32.6 years (min-23; max-65). Only about 16.6% (n=37) of healthcare workers had ever reported an ADR. Very few (n= 84, 37.7%) healthcare workers knew the tools used in ADR reporting. Less than a quarter (n=41, 18.4%) of the healthcare workers knew where to report ADRs. Lack of training was reported as the major (56.5%, 126) deterrent to reporting ADRs by healthcare workers. Conclusion: Adverse drug reactions are under-reported in Uganda, and healthcare workers have insufficient knowledge of existing pharmacovigilance systems, including ADR reporting systems. To address these challenges, there is need to sensitize and train healthcare workers in patient-centred aspects of medicine surveillance, so as to provide appropriate care while optimising patient safety.

Adverse drug reaction reporting practice and associated factors among medical doctors in government hospitals in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

“…The qualitative result also indicated that shortage of thereportingform in hospitals was contributed to under reporting of the ADR cases. This was in line with studies conducted inEthiopia and South India [19,44].Study conducted in Uganda was also indicated the availability of ADR reporting is essential for ADR reporting [43] and the unavailability of the ADR reporting format is the common discouraging factor for ADR reporting [45].…”

“…In addition, experienceddoctors had the probability of attending in-service trainings and different scientific conferences. Study also revealed that years of experience doctors and others health workers were associated with knowledge and attitude towards PV and ADR reporting [42,43]. Doctors who claimed ADR reporting form exist in their hospital werealmostfour times more likely to report ADR cases as compared to those doctors who claimed that it didn't exist in their hospital.…”

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Healthcare Professionals Towards Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting at Inpatient Wards of Tertiary Hospital, Ethiopia

“…Data was collected using structured self-administered questionnaire with information on socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge, attitude and practice on ADRs reporting adapted from reviewing different literatures and previous studies 11, [14][15][16][17][18] .…”

Knowledge, attitudes and practices of health care professionals towards adverse drug reaction reporting in public sector primary health care facilities in a South African district

“…Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are a major public health problem that causes increased mortality, morbidity and costs, including increased hospital admissions and length of stay [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. Physicians, pharmacists, dentists and nurses are in a position to play a key role in pharmacovigilance programmes; however, under-reporting of ADRs is common across countries especially in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18].…”