Knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of pharmacovigilance among paediatricians of Odisha and factors related to poor reporting of adverse drug reactions

BACKGROUND: Children are very much vulnerable to adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and also tend to have more severe form of adverse effects compared to adults. Though ADR is a significant problem in children, paediatricians seem to neglect this aspect. Knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) studies related to pharmacovigilance among paediatricians are lacking in literature. Hence, this study was planned to know the gaps in KAP among paediatricians of Odisha and factors related to underreporting of ADR. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Google Form containing the questions was shared to paediatricians of Odisha state working in both private and government organisations. The questionnaire was prepared based on previous studies and some new questions relevant to our scenario were added. The questionnaire contained six questions based on knowledge, four on attitude and three on practice of ADR. Apart from that, it contained questions to know their response regarding the factors that discourage paediatricians to report ADRs. There were 60 responses. RESULTS: Among the paediatricians, 70%–80% were aware of the pharmacovigilance programme running in India. Also, 80%–90% agreed that ADR reporting is crucial in paediatric health care, while most of them were trained regarding ADR reporting. But only 50% of them had reported an ADR in their clinical practice, which clearly indicates towards underreporting. CONCLUSION: The motivation for voluntary reporting of ADRs among paediatricians for preventing the morbidity and mortality in this vulnerable population could be of immense importance, and hence, various workshops and CMEs should be conducted to improve the KAP of these doctors, so that the problem of underreporting could be minimised.