Knowledge, attitude and practice of General Practitioners towards adverse drug reaction reporting in South of Iran, Shiraz (Pharmacoepidemiology report).

BACKGROUND: An adverse drug reaction (ADRs) is linked with the use of medications and unpredictable negative consequences. The Iranian Pharmacovigilance center (IPC) has reported that the rate of ADR is very low.

OBJECTIVE: Thus, this study was performed to find the reasons for this under-reporting, and investigate the level of knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of General Practitioners (GPs) about spontaneous reporting system in Shiraz.

METHODS: The present cross-sectional study was conducted on 350 general practitioners (GPs) working in Shiraz, Iran from Oct 2014 to March 2015. A semi-structured questionnaire was used which included demographic features, and evaluated KAPs of GPs regarding ADRs, Pharmacovigilance, and yellow card reporting. Statistical analysis was done by descriptive and analytical statistics (frequency, Mean±SD, Student t-test, Chi-square) using SPSS version 16.

RESULTS: Of 350 (95.1%) GPs, 333 completed the questionnaire. The respondents aged from 26 to76 years, of whom 176 (52.9%) were males with mean age 39.6±8.8 SD years. In regard to work place, 85 (25.5%) had their own office, and 112 (33.7%), 101 (30.9%), and 35 (10.5%) worked in private hospitals, in governmental hospitals, and in more than one place, respectively. Work experience mean was 13.3±8.2SD years and median was 12 years (range 1-50 years). Although, less than half of the participants (n = 151; 45.3%) described ADR correctly, 215 (64.6%) respondents claimed that they were not familiar with physician's responsibility regarding ADR reporting. Overall, few of the participants were aware of the steps in either ADR reporting or using Yellow Card System. On the whole, 100 (30%) respondents achieved acceptable knowledge score, while the median score was 9 out of 14 and minimum and maximum being 5 and 14, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: The physicians in Shiraz have poor knowledge of the pharmacovigilance system; however self-education leads to a better knowledge and positive attitude regarding ADRs reporting system. National Pharmacovigilance center should play a more active role in improving physicians' adherence to the ADRs reporting systems and the comprehensive educational pack can be used in local and national meetings. The main factor for low ADR reporting rates is lack of information about ADRs and how to report an ADR. Otherwise, obligatory education and training courses should be designed for general practitioners on reporting ADRs during and after graduation.