Comparative Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of Pharmacovigilance among Healthcare Professionals in Asir Region of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

In Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), pharmacovigilance (PV) is considered a new concept
and all stakeholders are still not fully functioning and applying all pharmacovigilance tasks. This study
was aimed to document the knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) of healthcare professionals (HCPs)
about PV and to investigate the barriers in executing PV activities in KSA. A questionnaire-based crosssectional study was conducted among HCPs at the Asir region, KSA. 450 questionnaires were circulated
with a response rate of 73.5%. Poor knowledge about the concepts of PV (42.2%) was evident. Only 34.1%
of participants were aware of National Pharmacovigilance Center. Despite the positive attitude towards
PV, only 58.1% were willing to establish an adverse drug reaction (ADR) monitoring centers in their clinical setting. Barriers for ADR reporting included lack of time (33.8%), knowing not how to report (31.6%)
and difficulty in identifying ADRs (27.5%). Overall, health care professionals in the Asir region had poor
knowledge about PV and ADRs reporting. However, the majority of them have never reported ADRs. The
findings of the study suggest that there is a need for continuous education regarding PV and ADR reporting systems for health care professionals in this country.