A STUDY OF KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE OF REPORTING OF ADVERSE DRUG REACTIONS AMONG MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS AT A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL

Background: All Medications have side effects and/or adverse effects in addition to therapeutic effects. Pharmacovigilance is necessary to deal with Adverse Drug Reactions(ADRs) . Objective: To evaluate the knowledge, attitude and practice of reporting of adverse drug reactions among medical practitioners at Sree Gokulam Medical College & Research Foundation. Method: The assessment was done with the help of a questionnaire which contained 8 questions on basic knowledge and information about pharmacovigilance, 9 questions on attitude and 7 questions on practice of ADR reporting. Data was entered into MS Excel spreadsheet and analysed using SPSS Version 27. Qualitative variables were expressed in frequency and percentage. Fischer's exact test was done to nd out the association between qualitative variables. Results: Majority of the Doctors had average knowledge (55.2%) and all had a very good attitude regarding ADR reporting. However, in the practice of ADR reporting, majority (52.4%) had poor practice followed by average practice (45.7 %). Conclusion:In spite of a very good attitude towards reporting of ADRs, the actual practice of reporting is low. This can be attributed to low level of knowledge regarding ADR reporting. Periodical training sessions on Pharmacovigilance to update the knowledge and awareness can ultimately improve the ADR reporting and patient care.