Knowledge of Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting Among Healthcare Professionals in Bhutan: A Cross-Sectional Survey.

INTRODUCTION: The Bhutan National Pharmacovigilance Centre (NPC) became an official member of the WHO Programme for International Drug Monitoring in December 2014; however, the number of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) reported is very low (50 reports per 773,722 inhabitants over 10 years). Surveys of healthcare professionals (HCPs) in similar countries have indicated that adequate knowledge of both ADRs and ADR reporting is likely to increase the number of ADR reports submitted.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the level of knowledge of both ADRs and ADR reporting among HCPs, including traditional medicine practitioners.

METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted, using a validated self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaires were distributed to 670 HCPs, including clinical doctors, nurses, pharmacists and traditional medicine practitioners from four referral hospitals. The survey consisted of 12 questions pertaining to ADRs and 10 questions pertaining to knowledge of ADR reporting. The collected response was then analysed descriptively and results presented as mean ± standard deviation (SD) using SPSS version 20.

RESULTS: The overall response rate was 434 (65 %) questionnaires, with HCPs consisting of clinical doctors (94, 22 %), nurses (257, 59 %), pharmacists (52, 12 %) and traditional medicine practitioners (31, 7 %). The overall mean ± SD score with regard to the level of knowledge of ADRs was 6.52 ± 2.81 out of a maximum score of 12, among which clinical doctors scored 7.48 ± 2.95, nurses 6.15 ± 2.47, pharmacists 8.15 ± 2.49 and traditional medicine practitioners 4.13 ± 3.18. The mean ± SD score with regard to the level of knowledge of ADR reporting among HCPs was 3.94 ± 1.89 out of a maximum score of 10, among which clinical doctors scored 3.93 ± 1.81, nurses 3.75 ± 1.74, pharmacists 5.00 ± 1.81 and traditional medicine practitioners 4.00 ± 1.77.

CONCLUSION: Clinical doctors and pharmacists have better knowledge of ADRs than nurses and traditional medicine practitioners, while knowledge of ADR reporting was low for all HCPs surveyed.