Abstract

Introduction: Once a medicine is registered and marketed, healthcare systems rely heavily on spontaneous reporting of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) to monitor the safety of drugs. ADRs reporting is considered a cornerstone of pharmacovigilance (PV) system. Underreporting has been a major obstacle and poses a great challenge to PV activities that negatively influence public health. Therefore, this study aimed to assess pharmacists' knowledge, attitude and practice toward ADRs reporting in Aden City - Yemen.

Methods: A comparative cross-sectional study was conducted during November and December 2022 in Aden city. A self-administered, pretested questionnaire- comprised of sections on pharmacists’ characteristics, knowledge of PV concepts and ADR reporting process, attitudes towards ADR reporting and practice of ADR reporting- was administered to selected community and hospital pharmacists. Data were summarized using descriptive statistics and the Pearson’s Chi-square test was used to examine the differences between both groups of pharmacists.

Results: Four hundred pharmacists participated in the study. Three quarters of them were males. About half of them correctly identified PV definition and purposes as well as ADR definition, but 38.5% and 37.8% were heard about national ADR scheme/guideline and aware of the existence of an ADR system in Yemen respectively. Only 29.3% and 10.8% showed adequate knowledge of PV concepts and ADRs reporting process respectively. The majority showed positive attitude towards PV and ADR reporting, 97.8% agreed that reporting process can benefit the public health, 94.3% contributes to drug safety and 87.3% agreed that PV should be taught in detail to health care professionals.  However, in practice, 48.3% and 41.5% of pharmacists had ever diagnosed an ADR and encountered one or more ADRs in their daily practice respectively and only 12.3% of them had ever reported an ADR. The differences between community and hospital pharmacists by their overall knowledge, attitude scores and in ADR reporting practice were statistically insignificant.

Conclusion: The majority of community and hospital pharmacists had inadequate knowledge and poor practice, with a positive attitude towards ADRs reporting. Therefore, strategies to improve knowledge and practices regarding ADR reporting should be implemented. Regular mandatory education and continuous in job training should be provided to all pharmacists and others health care professionals.

Keywords: Pharmacovigilance, Awareness, Drug safety, Community pharmacists, Yemen

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