Knowledge, perception and practice of pharmacovigilance among community pharmacists in South India

Pharmacovigilance has not progressed well in India and the concept is still in its infancy. India rates below 1% in pharmacovigilance as against the world rate of 5%.

The aim of our study was to evaluate the knowledge, perception and practice of pharmacovigilance among registered community pharmacists in Hyderabad, India.

This was a prospective study to find out the knowledge, perception and practice of adverse drug reaction reporting among community pharmacists. It was conducted by a face to face questionnaire and the convenience factor of the pharmacist was taken into consideration.

From the 650 questionnaire administered to community pharmacists, 347 (53.3%) were returned completely filled questionnaires. A number of 120 (34.6%) pharmacists could define the term 'pharmacovigilance' to an acceptable extent and 119 (34.3%) knew about the National Pharmacovigilance Programme in India. 96 (27.7%) had good knowledge, 36(10.4%) had fair knowledge and 215(61.9%) had poor knowledge about pharmacovigilance. We have found that 196 (56.5%) had good perception, 94(27.1%) had fair perception and 57(16.4%) had poor perception. Only 41(11.8%) pharmacists ever reported an ADR and the other never reported ADR. The majority of pharmacists 223(64.3%) felt that the AE is very simple and non-serious and hence did not report. Pharmacists have poor knowledge, good perception and negligibly low reporting rates.

Incorporation of ADR reporting concepts in education curriculum, training of pharmacists and voluntary participation of pharmacists in ADR reporting is very crucial in achieving the safety goals and safeguarding public health.