An Exploration of Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices of Physicians toward Pharmacovigilance at Tertiary Care Hospitals in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan

Abstract

Drug safety assures the effectiveness, safety, and security of drugs, vaccines, and other biologicals to protect public health. Medication-related errors coupled with unjudicial medication practices often cause a catastrophic impact on the healthcare system globally. The present study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of physicians toward pharmacovigilance and barriers to adverse drug reaction (ADR) reporting at tertiary care hospitals in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, Pakistan. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among registered doctors working in seven tertiary care hospitals from seven administrative divisions of KP province of Pakistan from July 2019 to March 2020. During the study period, 358 physicians who fulfilled the inclusion criteria and agreed to participate completed and returned the validated structured questionnaires. Descriptive and inferential statistics were applied for data analysis. The majority of physicians had poor knowledge (81.3%) regarding pharmacovigilance along with poor reporting practices (94.9%), although (96.5%) had a positive attitude toward ADR reporting. A significant barrier identified was the unavailability of reporting forms (95.9%), whereas mandatory ADR reporting (96.2%) was the major factor to encourage ADR reporting. Physicians aged ≥ 41 and experience ≥ 11 years had significantly more knowledge than other categories (P < 0.001). Significant association (P < 0.001) of physicians’ knowledge and practice were found where 77.2% of the participants having poor knowledge reported poor practices. Physicians’ understanding of pharmacovigilance was suboptimal, although they have a positive attitude toward ADR reporting. Thus, there is a need for continuous education and training programs to support pharmacovigilance activities that could improve physicians’ understanding.

Exploring Pakistani Physicians' Knowledge and Practices Regarding High Alert Medications: Findings and Implications

“…Our survey revealed that the age, level of education, working experience, and hospital type are related to better HAMs administration scores among physicians. These findings are in line with a recent study reported from KPK Province, Pakistan, where age and working experience of the medical doctors are associated with better drug safety knowledge ( Sharif et al, 2021 ). In our previous study conducted among nurses, no associations though were observed between HAMs administration awareness with age, experience, and level of education ( Salman et al, 2020 ).…”