Oct-Dec, 2011 - Indian Journal of Pharmacy Practice

Amrita P - Scenario of Pharmacovigilance and ADR Reporting among Pharmacists in DelhiTable 2: Demographics of Hospital Pharmacists (47)Qualification Sex Sector ExperiencePharm. Others Male Female Govt. Pvt. 0-5 5-10 10-15 15-20 ≥ 20years years years years yearsNo. 47 0 38 9 41 6 3 11 2 13 18% 100 0 80.85 19.15 87.23 12.77 6.38 23.40 4.26 27.66 38.30Table 3: Demographics of Community Pharmacists (39)Qualification Sex Sector ExperiencePharm. Others Male Female Govt. Pvt. 0-5 5-10 10-15 15-20 ≥ 20years years years years yearsNo. 27 12 38 1 0 39 5 14 12 4 4% 69.23 30.77 97.44 2.56 0 100 12.82 35.90 30.77 10.26 10.26Table 4: Demographics of Medical Representatives (62)Qualification Sex Sector ExperiencePharm. Others Male Female Govt. Pvt. 0-5 5-10 10-15 15-20 ≥ 20years years years years yearsNo. 22 40 61 1 0 62 55 4 1 1 1% 35.48 64.52 98.39 1.61 0 100 88.71 6.45 1.61 1.61 1.61pharmacy qualification. Pharmacy qualification should bemade mandatory for the medical representatives. All hospitalpharmacists (100%) had pharmacy qualification.Gender:Out of the total 148 pharmacists, only 11 (7.43%) werefemales. Further study shows that out of 39 communitypharmacists only 1 (2.56%) was female, out of 62 medicalrepresentatives only 1 (1.61%) was female while out of 47hospital pharmacists, 9 (19.15%) were females. Thus we cansay that males predominate as community pharmacists,hospital pharmacists, and medical representatives overfemales. There was no gender wise difference in theknowledge, attitude and skills of pharmacists regardingpharmacovigilance, ADR reporting and monitoring.Sector:It was observed that out of 148 pharmacists, 41 (27.70%)pharmacists were working in the government sector and all ofthem were hospital pharmacists. There are no medical shopsrun by the government sector and thus all the communitypharmacists (39, 100%) belong to private sector. Similarly allthe medical representatives belong to private sector. Theknowledge, attitude and skills of the pharmacists working ingovernment sector were superior to the pharmacists workingin the private sector.Experience:There was no significant difference in the response ofpharmacists with different levels of experience. Experiencedid not have any correlation with the level of knowledge,skill, attitude of pharmacists about pharmacovigilance andADR reporting.Summary of results:In nutshell, hospital pharmacists were more aware about thepharmacovigilance (48.93%), ADR (31.91%), expectedtherapeutic effects of drugs (87.93%), possible side effects ofprescribed drugs (74.46%) and also they were involved morein informing patients about the expected therapeutic effects(82.97%), possible side effects of drugs (74.46%) and inreporting ADR. It is interesting to note that knowledge, skilland attitude of hospital pharmacists about pharmacovigilanceand ADR reporting was highest. This may be due to theirpharmacy education and constant contact with healthcareprofessionals and patients in the hospital setting. In addition,all of them cleared the stringent selection proceduresensuring good knowledge base while entering governmentsector.The overall reporting by pharmacists of Delhi to ADRmonitoring centers is abysmal.Main reasons of underreporting:Main reasons for negligible reporting of ADR by pharmacistsare summarized in Figure 5.These are-Ÿ Pharmacists lack of knowledge regardingpharmacovigilance (59.46%).Indian Journal of Pharmacy Practice Volume 4 Issue 4 Oct - Dec, 2011 36