Assessment of knowledge, attitude, and practice towards adverse drug reaction reporting among healthcare students of Namakkal District, Tamil Nadu

Abstract

Background: Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are recognised causes of increased mortality, morbidity, and high healthcare costs. The contribution of healthcare students to ADR databases is essential and has enabled continued drug detection to such an extent that it has led to identifying unsuspected and rare ADR signals.    Objectives: The study aims to evaluate healthcare students’ knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) toward ADR reporting.    Methods: This descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted among 265 healthcare students of Namakkal district, Tamil Nadu, from various departments. A three-section questionnaire was developed in English and distributed online from July to October 2020. Each participant received a score for each KAP section. Results: Of the 265 healthcare students included in the study, 56.98% were female. The majority were pharmacy students 132 (49.81%), followed by medical 74 (27.92%) and nursing 59 (22.26%) students. There was a significant difference in ADR reporting among healthcare students. KAP of ADR reporting was higher among pharmacy students (88.68%) compared to the medical (19.25%) and nursing students (29.63%), with a p-value of 0.05. Conclusion: This study showed that pharmacy students had more awareness of ADR reporting than other healthcare students due to pharmacovigilance courses in their curriculum and adequate training during clerkships and internships. Hence, it is necessary to include pharmacovigilance and ADR reporting in other healthcare curriculum to reduce ADR underreporting in the future. Periodic educational interventions can improve these parameters of pharmacovigilance.