Knowledge, Attitude, Practices, and Barriers of Pharmacovigilance among Healthcare Workers: A Cross-sectional Survey from Lahore, Pakistan

Background : Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are associated with increased length of hospital stay, permanent disability and even death. Objectives : The purpose of this study was to assess knowledge, attitude, practice (KAP), and barriers related to Pharmacovigilance (PV) among Pakistani healthcare workers (HCWs). Methods : A cross-sectional study was conducted in the second largest metropolitan city (Lahore) of Pakistan during a period of 4 months (June e September 2018). A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from the doctors, pharmacists, and nurses from 8 tertiary care hospitals, recruited via convenient sampling. All data were analyzed in SPSS version 21. Results : A total of 363 participants (125 doctors, 83 pharmacists and 155 nurses) were recruited. The median [inter-quartile range (IQR)] knowledge score was 6 (3), with 44.6, 41.9, and 13.5% of participants having poor (score < 6), moderate (score 6 e 9), and good (score ≥ 10) PV related knowledge, respectively. Additionally, the median (IQR) attitude and practice score were 7 (3) and 4 (2), respectively [good attitudes 24.8% (score ≥ 8); good practices 33.9% (score ≥ 5)]. Pharmacist were found to have signi fi cantly better KAP related to PV than others (p < 0.001). Moreover, male HCWs had substantially better KAP than females. Conclusion : Although pharmacist have better KAP scores than other HCWs, yet overall KAP of PV among study participants were inadequate. Thus, continuous training and teaching programs should be conducted to improve awareness and to promote ADR reporting.