Effect of an educational intervention on knowledge and attitude regarding pharmacovigilance and consumer pharmacovigilance among community pharmacists in Lalitpur district, Nepal

BACKGROUND: Pharmacovigilance activities are in a developing stage in Nepal. ADR reporting is mainly confined to healthcare professionals working in institutions recognized as regional pharmacovigilance centers. Community pharmacists could play an important role in pharmacovigilance. This study was conducted among community pharmacists in Lalitpur district to examine their knowledge and attitude about pharmacovigilance before and after an educational intervention. METHODS: Knowledge and attitude was studied before, immediately after and 6 weeks following the intervention among 75 community pharmacists. Responses were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. A pretested questionnaire having twelve and nine statements for assessing knowledge and attitude were used. The overall scores were obtained by adding the ‘knowledge’ and ‘attitude’ scores and ‘overall’ scores were summarized using median and interquartile range. Wilcoxon signed-rank test for repeated samples was used to compare the differences between knowledge and attitude of the pharmacists before and after the educational program. RESULTS: Knowledge scores [median (interquartile range)] improved significantly between pre-test [39 (44–46)], post-test [44 (44–44)] and retention period of 6 weeks after the intervention [46 (43–46)]. Knowledge score improved immediately post-intervention among both males [44 (41–47)] and females [44 (43–45)] but the retention scores (after 6 weeks) were higher [46 (42–48)] among males. Attitude scores improved significantly among females [46 (44–48)]. The overall scores were higher among pharmacists from rural areas. CONCLUSION: Knowledge and attitude scores improved after the educational intervention. Further studies in other regions of the country are required. The national pharmacovigilance center should promote awareness about ADR reporting among community pharmacists. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13104-016-2343-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.