Evaluating the knowledge, attitudes and practices of healthcare workers towards adverse drug reaction reporting in a Public Tertiary Hospital

Date
2018
Authors
Gordhon, Yashmay
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Background Spontaneous reporting of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) is a method of monitoring the safety of drugs post-marketing, providing a way to discover new, rare or unnoticed ADRs. Despite its importance, there is widespread underreporting of ADRs by health care professionals in South Africa. Objectives The study assessed the knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) of health care professionals on ADR reporting at a public hospital. Methods The questionnaire consisted of 21 questions (5 demographics; 7 knowledge; 1 attitude; 7 practices of the participant). Hard copies of the questionnaire were completed by doctors, nurses and pharmacists. The results were captured on Microsoft Excel™, and imported onto Stata® 14 to conduct Pearson chi-squared and Fishers tests. Results 297 health care professionals (87.87%) responded to the questionnaire. 50.17% had knowledge of reporting, and pharmacists were the most likely professionals to know how to report (82.61%) (p< 0.001). 96.88% of participants who had previously received ADR training knew how to report ADRs. 90.24% stated they would report an ADR based on the seriousness of the reaction. Lack of knowledge; managing the patient being more important than reporting; and reporting being time-consuming were some discouraging factors. 58.59% of participants had encountered an ADR before but only 16.50% had reported (p< 0.001). Conclusions Doctors, nurses and pharmacists were aware of the presence of ADRs, but were unlikely to report them. Health care professionals should be made aware of the benefits of reporting, and perhaps a culture of reporting can be adopted given an awareness of pharmacovigilance.
Description
A dissertation submitted to the School of Therapeutic Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Pharmacy January 2018, Johannesburg.
Keywords
Healthcare Workers
Citation
Collections