Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting by Different Categories of Healthcare Workers in Nnewi, Nigeria: Awareness, Knowledge and Attitudes

Aim: To determine the level of awareness, knowledge and attitudes among health workers in different settings of health care in Nnewi, Nigeria towards the reporting of adverse drug reactions (ADRs).
Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study of 372 health workers in different health facilities in Nnewi North LGA of Anambra state, Nigeria was done. The participants were doctors, pharmacists and nurses, selected using multistage sampling technique. Data collection employed pretested, self-administered structured questionnaires. Data was analysed using statistical package for social sciences version 17. Chi-square test for proportions was used to document statistical significance among variables. A p value of < 0.05 was considered significant.
Results: Two hundred and fifty five (68.5%) were females and 117 (31.5%) were males. This comprises 241 (64.8%) nurses/related cadres, 109 (29.3%) doctors and 22 (5.9%) pharmacists. Majority of them, 221 (59.4%) were not aware of the existence of the national ADR reporting scheme/guideline. The Pharmacists were more aware compared to other health professionals (P=.000). Respondents from tertiary health facility showed greatest awareness (43.2%). A total of 131 (35.2%) respondents have knowledge of the criteria for reporting ADR though it does not have a relationship with profession (P=.71) and does not depend on the level of the health facility where one worked (P=.30).
Conclusion: This study showed poor awareness, knowledge gaps and poor attitude to ADR reporting across the professional groups. There is need for regular sensitization, training and retraining as well as attitudinal changes of health care providers to ADR reporting.