Journal of Pharmacovigilance

Assessment of knowledge, attitude and behavior of community pharmacist?s towards Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) in a resource limited health care settings of Andhra Pradesh

3^rd International Conference and Exhibition on Pharmacovigilance & Clinical Trials

October 27-29, 2014 Hyderabad International Convention Centre, India

Anusha Malepati, Y Padmanabha Reddy and Mohanraj Rathinavelu

Posters: J Pharmacovigilance

Abstract:

India is one of the highly populated countries with high illiteracy rate, thus leading to in reduced awareness regarding the proper usage of drugs and resulted in high mortality and morbidity rates. Pharmacists are the first choice in approach towards medication safety. Pharmaceutical care service is on good raise with well-established pharmacy practice pharmacists with patient care as prime focus. Incidence of ADR?s is increasingly more due to reduced practice about Pharmacovigilance. The current prospective questionnaire based study was conducted to assess the knowledge, attitude and behavior of community pharmacists regarding the detection, assessment, prevalence and reporting of Adverse Drug Reaction. A total of 135 pharmacies participated in the study and filled the questionnaire. The data was analyzed using Kruskal-Wallis analysis of variance and student t-test. Only 55 (40%) pharmacists knew about ADRS?S and 33 (25%) answered regarding adverse effects of antitubercular drugs and only 37 (28%) knew about National Pharmacovigilance programme in India and 45 (33%) explained about adverse effects before dispensing. More experienced and qualified pharmacists gave good scores. So this study showed that in rural areas there is no proper knowledge about ADR assessment, detection and reporting. So a large lacuna has to be overcome by pharmacists by increasing awareness among them by updating them at regular intervals by continuous education programme for community pharmacists.

Biography :

Malepati Anusha currently a student pursuing Doctor of Pharmacy Program in Raghavendra Institute of Pharmaceutical Education & Research (RIPER) affiliated to Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Anantapur (JNTUA) Anantapuramu, Andhra Pradesh. Active participant and student member of ISPOR - India (International Society for Pharmacoeconomics & Outcome Research, Andhra Pradesh - Regional chapter). She has actively volunteered in many national and international conferences of ISPOR and had been awarded a best prize in a debate competition held at RIPER. She is interested in learning innovative things.