Pharmacovigilance Study: Awareness among Medical Students of a New Medical School of Malaysia

Mainul, Haque and Nordin, Simbak and Abdullahi Rabiu, Abubakar (2015) Pharmacovigilance Study: Awareness among Medical Students of a New Medical School of Malaysia. International Journal of Pharmaceutical Research, 7 (1). pp. 83-88. ISSN 0975-2366

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Abstract

Patients take medicine for the treatment of their illness and medicine is a double edge sword, thus causes harm beside their therapeutic benefit. Pharmacovigilance program was designed to monitor and report the harmful effects of drugs after they are marketed for use by the larger society. This research was aimed at assessing the medical students’ knowledge, attitude and practice with respect to adverse drug reaction and its surveillance. The questionnaire was adopted, modified and validated from previous studies. It comprised of 25 questions (Knowledge-10, Attitude-7 and Practice-8). It was administered Year-IV and V medical students of Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin. The data collected was coded and analyzed using the SPSS version 20. The response rate was 74%. Sixty-eight percent knows the definition of adverse drug reactions correctly; 59% of them recognized the right functions of pharmacovigilance. In contrast, only 21% know the method commonly used in adverse drug reactions reporting and only 15% are aware of any nearby pharmacovigilance center. Eighty-seven percent strongly agree that adverse drug reactions reporting is professional obligation; 98% think adverse drug reactions reporting will benefit patients. Ninety-four percent have never received any training on how to report adverse drug reactions. In addition, 72% have come across adverse drug reactions but avoided to contact appropriate authority. The overall medical students’ knowledge on adverse drug reactions and its surveillance was not enough; even though they had good attitudes their practice remained very poor. This has call for adjustment of medical students’ curriculum with respect to pharmacovigilance study.

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