Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Assessment of the knowledge, attitude and practice of pharmacovigilance by pharmacists in two states in south-eastern Nigeria

Jude A Udoye¹, Raymond I Ozolua¹ , Jude Nwokike²

¹Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Benin, Benin City 300001, Nigeria; ²United States Pharmacopeial Convention,12601 Twinbrook Parkway, Rockville MD 20852-1790, USA.

For correspondence:- Raymond Ozolua Email: ozolua@uniben.edu

Accepted: 11 November 2017 Published: 28 May 2018

Citation: Udoye JA, Ozolua RI, Nwokike J. Assessment of the knowledge, attitude and practice of pharmacovigilance by pharmacists in two states in south-eastern Nigeria. Trop J Pharm Res 2018; 17(5):937-945 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v17i5.25

© 2018 The authors.
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Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of pharmacovigilance (PV) and adverse drug reactions (ADRs) reporting among community and hospital pharmacists in Abia and Imo States of Nigeria.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was done using a validated questionnaire distributed among hospital and community pharmacists in the two States.

Results: Out of the 227 copies of the questionnaire administered, 169 (74.4%) were usable. Only 22% of all the pharmacists had postgraduate qualification but 78.0% had more than five years post-qualification experience. All respondents were aware of the concept of PV; 73.4% had seen a patient with ADR while 17.7% had not seen the ADR reporting form in use in Nigeria. Only 24.3% had officially reported an ADR. Factors that affected reporting were lack of incentive (52.1%), role conflict (69.2%), and role overload (72.8%). Mean score for KAP-related questions was higher among hospital pharmacists than their community counterparts.

Conclusion: The study has shown that while all pharmacists were aware of PV, the attitude and practice of many of them constituted a challenge and accounted for poor level of reporting.

Keywords: Adverse drug reactions, Community pharmacists, Hospital pharmacists, National Pharmacovigilance Centre