Knowledge and Attitude about Pharmacovigilance: A Cross-sectionalStudy Involving Pharmacy Students of Selected Universities inBangladesh

Purpose: Now-a-days, the role of Pharmacists has become more patient-centric that includes drug safety by preventing, identifying, documenting, and reporting of adverse drug reactions (ADRs). The objective of this study was to evaluate the knowledge of pharmacy undergraduate and graduate students of Bangladesh towards pharmacovigilance (PV) and their attitude on reporting of ADRs. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted by distributing a pretested questionnaire. The randomly selected participants of undergraduate and graduate pharmacy students from both public and private universities of Dhaka city, Bangladesh took part in the study. The data were analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) for calculating descriptive statistics; the Pearson's Chi-square (χ2) test was performed to observe any significant difference between the public and private university students’ response. Results: Among the participants (n=504), 36% and 52% students gave the correct definition of PV and ADRs, respectively. Among the correct answer givers, most of the students were from public universities (p=0.01). The results to assess the attitude of the students suggested that about three quarters of participants thought that reporting of ADRs is a professional obligation. However, surprisingly 65% students believed they were not well prepared to report any ADRs with their present knowledge. Conclusion: From the study we concluded that the pharmacy students had a positive attitude towards PV, however, their knowledge was inadequate for PV implementation in professional life. Thus to improve the overall ADR reporting in Bangladesh it is imperative for the future graduates to be well equipped with PV knowledge.