| Summary: | 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. === 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. === LG2018
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