Authors: Muhammad Muqri Bin Barudinsah, Khalid Ahmad Ali AL Sunaidar
ABSTRACT
Background: Healthcare professionals, particularly pharmacists, play a crucial role in adverse drug reaction (ADR) reporting and pharmacovigilance activities. Despite retail pharmacies being the most accessible point of care for the patients to report mild ADRs, ADR reporting by community pharmacists in Malaysia remains low. Hence, increasing reporting rate among community pharmacists is crucial to promote medication safety.
Objective: This study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and barriers related to ADR reporting and pharmacovigilance among community pharmacists in Perak, Malaysia, and explore associations between their sociodemographic characteristics with their good knowledge, positive attitudes and high barriers level.
Methods: A cross-sectional study design was employed through both physical and online survey, involving 179 community pharmacists in Perak. Data were collected using a 38-item self-administered online structured questionnaire. Statistical analyses were subsequently conducted.
Results: This study revealed that community pharmacists exhibited good knowledge (82.1%), positive attitudes (68.7%) and low barriers (86.1%) towards ADR reporting and pharmacovigilance. However, several significant barriers hindered their reporting efforts, including the time-consuming nature of the reporting process (37.4%) and doubts about the causality of ADRs (29.7%). Remarkably, gender and CPD programmes participation were associated with good knowledge. While female gender, younger age and recent pharmacovigilance course exposure were associated with positive attitudes, higher education level was inversely associated with positive attitudes.
Conclusion: Despite possessing good knowledge and positive attitudes, several barriers prevent community pharmacists in Perak from effectively reporting ADRs. Targeted interventions are necessary to address these barriers and improve ADR reporting rates among community pharmacists.
Keywords: ADR, adverse drug reactions, attitude, barriers, community pharmacists, knowledge, pharmacovigilance.
Citations: IeJSME 2025 Vol 19 (3): 46-63