Awareness of pharmacovigilance and adverse drug reactions among second professional MBBS students of a medical college in Kerala, India

Abdul Aslam P.; Jihana Shajahan; Sangeetha Purushothaman

doi:10.18203/2319-2003.ijbcp20175217

Authors

Abdul Aslam P. Department of Pharmacology, Travancore Medical College, Kollam, Kerala, India
Jihana Shajahan Department of Pharmacology, Travancore Medical College, Kollam, Kerala, India
Sangeetha Purushothaman Department of Pharmacology, Travancore Medical College, Kollam, Kerala, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18203/2319-2003.ijbcp20175217

Keywords:

Adverse drug reaction (ADR), Pharmacovigilance, Pharmacovigilance programme of India (PvPI)

Abstract

Background: Pharmacovigilance is the science and activities related to detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse drug reactions (ADR). The major challenge faced by the pharmacovigilance programme of India is underreporting. It is mainly due to lack of awareness, knowledge, attitude and practice among health care professionals. The main objective of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of second professional MBBS students towards ADR reporting and to provide a session on pharmacovigilance as an intervention to increase their awareness since they are the future budding doctors.

Methods: This questionnaire based study was conducted among 158 second professional MBBS students of Travancore Medical College, Kollam, Kerala. A pretest was conducted using the questionnaire followed by which a two-hours session on ADR reporting and Pharmacovigilance was given. A posttest was done with the same questionnaire. The response of the KAP questionnaire were analysed separately for pretest and posttest in percentages and based on scores and was compared.

Results: Out of the158 students participated all the students successfully completed the questions of both pretest and posttest within stipulated time frame. In pretest 3 (1.9%), 101 (64%), 43 (27.1%) candidates were categorized to excellent, good and poor respectively. In posttest 155 (98.1%), 3 (1.9%) were in excellent and good category respectively. There was not even a single candidate in poor category. There was a marked increase in the knowledge and awareness of the students after the two hours intervention session on ADR reporting and pharmacovigilance which was statistically significant (p= 0.001).

Conclusions: This study revealed the awareness of second professional MBBS students towards ADR reporting and Pharmacovigilance in our institution and also clearly showed the importance of early sensitization through educational interventions, which improved the KAP in pharmacovigilance in them. Educating medical students will improve the challenge of underreporting of ADRs and will increase the numbers of ADRs reported in our country.

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