Authors : Kavita Dineshbhai Dhanani, Shilpa P Jadav, Ullas Balvantrai Gajera
DOI : 10.18231/j.ijpp.2024.013
Volume : 11
Issue : 2
Year : 2024
Page No : 72-79
Introduction: Prescription of drugs should always be done carefully to minimize adverse effects. Studies show that a significant percentage of patients experience adverse drug reactions (ADRs) that lead to hospital admission. India’s ADR reporting rate is below 1%, while the world rate is 5%. Postgraduate medical students are crucial in ensuring the safe and effective use of drugs through their responsibilities in prescribing, administering, and monitoring drugs in patients. Their knowledge, attitudes, and practices towards pharmacovigilance are essential. Aim : The study aimed to evaluate the basic knowledge, attitudes, and practices of postgraduate medical students regarding Pharmacovigilance. Materials and Methods: The cross-sectional study used a pre-validated Google form questionnaire sent via electronic device. The questionnaire consists of three sections: knowledge, attitude, and practice. All three sections have 10 multiple-choice questions each. Each true answer to a question from the knowledge section will get 1 mark. Attitude and practice questions were Likert-based questions. The data was analysed using descriptive statistics. Results: A total of 105 responses were recorded. Overall knowledge of monitoring and reporting of ADRs in postgraduate medical students is 53.04% with the lowest understanding observed in the question regarding "Example of Type A ADRs," which is at 35.20%. 51.40% of participants have an attitude to participate in the training of ADR reporting. 64.80% of participants routinely provide counselling to patients on the potential side effects of medications. Patients with good knowledge of monitoring and reporting ADRs have higher odds of demonstrating good practices. C onclusions: Imparting the knowledge and awareness of pharmacovigilance among the residents employing continuous educational intervention would bring updated knowledge of practice for drug safety into their everyday clinical practice and also bring the adverse drug reactions reporting culture among them.