An evaluation of knowledge, attitude, and practice of adverse drug reaction reporting in a tertiary care teaching hospital of Sikkim

Abstract

Aim:Spontaneous voluntary adverse drug reaction (ADR) reporting is paramount to the success of the Pharmacovigilance Programme of India. There has however been minimal and sporadic voluntary reporting of ADR's at the ADR Monitoring Centre (AMC) Gangtok, Sikkim. Knowledge, perception, attitude, and awareness of health professionals are determinants of reporting practices. This questionnaire study aims at evaluating these indicators in the teaching hospital attached to the Medical Institute and find out methods to improve existing reporting practices.Materials and Methods:This is a cross-sectional questionnaire-based observational study carried out in the Medical, Surgical and Pathology Departments of the Teaching Hospital, Gangtok, Sikkim over a period of 2 months. The questionnaires were filled by the respondents and returned back to us within the next 24 h. Data obtained from filled questionnaires were thereby analyzed.Results:The overall correct response rate to the knowledge-based questions was 56.3%. While 97% of respondents were of the view that ADR reporting was necessary, 35% of the respondents felt that the difficulty in deciding the causality of an ADR discouraged them from reporting. 79% of the respondents were not aware of the presence of an AMC affiliated to the hospital, and 87% of the respondents admitted that they were not sending filled ADR forms to the AMC.Conclusions:The study indicates that the respondents have an average knowledge and positive attitude toward ADR reporting and pharmacovigilance. There is however a lack of awareness and poor ADR reporting practices. Efforts are required to enhance awareness and attitude toward pharmacovigilance and ADR reporting.

Knowledge, attitude and perception of physicians towards adverse drug reaction (ADR) reporting: a pharmacovigilance study

“…[14][15][16] But the ground reality is, in India, ADR reporting by physician accounted to 64.4%. 17 However, survey in Saudi Arabia showed that 49.3% of the physicians suggested that only serious ADRs should be reported.…”

“…11 Physicians from Sikkim (63%) and Indore (66.2%) also considered ADR reporting to be a professional obligation. 15,18 Despite positive attitude from the physicians for the need to report ADRs, in practice there was scarcity of reporting.…”

“…10,11 On the contrary, study from Sikkim revealed majority of the participants (79%) were unaware about any AMC in their institute. 15 There were different views in the society on the issue "who can report ADR?" Present study observed only 36% responders supported the direct ADR reporting by the patients.…”

A Survey on Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Pharmacovigilance towards Adverse drug reactions reporting among Doctors and Nurses in a Tertiary Care Hospital in South India

“…15 This difference, may be because our ADR monitoring center was one this finding is almost similar to previous studies. 16,21 Only 67% of doctors and 52% of nurses believe ADR can sometimes cause death or significant illness to the patients. The reason may be the health care professionals believe that only safe drugs are marketed.…”

A study of assessing knowledge, attitude and practice of pharmacovigilance among medical students of a South Indian teaching hospital

“…18,19 In our study, only 45% participants think that ADR reporting is a professional obligation which is less as compared to other studies. 12,20,21 This is the attitude component which needs to be modified for improving the underreporting of ADR. Good knowledge and attitude remove the misconceptions, obstacles and potential barriers to the activities that we would like to implement thus initiating the practices for reporting.…”