Adverse drug reaction reporting among health care workers at Mulago National Referral and Teaching hospital in Uganda

• Published in: African health sciences Vol. 15; no. 4; pp. 1308 - 1317
• Main Authors: Katusiime, Barbra, Semakula, Daniel, Lubinga, Solomon J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Uganda Makerere University Medical School 01-12-2015; Makerere Medical School
• Subjects: ADR; Adverse drug reaction; Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting Systems - statistics & numerical data; adverse effects; Cross-Sectional Studies; Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions; Drugs; Female; Health Personnel; healthcare worker; Hospitalization; Hospitals, Teaching; Humans; Male; Medical Personnel; Morbidity; Mortality; Patients; Pharmacology; Pharmacovigilance; reporting; Research methodology; Side Effects; Statistical analysis; Surveillance; Surveys and Questionnaires; Teaching hospitals; Uganda; Uganda; adverse effects; Uganda; Adverse drug reaction; pharmacovigilance; healthcare worker; reporting; ADR
• ISSN: 1680-6905; 1729-0503; 1680-6905
• DOI: 10.4314/ahs.v15i4.34

Background: Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) are an important contributor
to patient morbidity and hospitalisation in Uganda. Under-reporting of
ADRs may increase medicine-induced morbidity and mortality among
patients. This study determined the extent of ADR reporting, and
associated factors, among healthcare workers in Uganda. Methods: A
quantitative, cross-sectional, study was conducted. Pretested,
semi-structured questionnaires were administered to 289 randomly
sampled healthcare workers over a three-month period in Mulago National
Referral Hospital, Uganda. The primary outcome was the proportion of
healthcare workers who had ever reported an ADR. Data was
double-entered in Epidata version 3.0, cleaned and exported to STATA
version 10.1 for analysis. Results: The overall response rate was 77.2%
(n=223). The majority of the respondents were females (139, 62.3%). The
median age of all respondents was 32.6 years (min-23; max-65). Only
about 16.6% (n=37) of healthcare workers had ever reported an ADR. Very
few (n= 84, 37.7%) healthcare workers knew the tools used in ADR
reporting. Less than a quarter (n=41, 18.4%) of the healthcare workers
knew where to report ADRs. Lack of training was reported as the major
(56.5%, 126) deterrent to reporting ADRs by healthcare workers.
Conclusion: Adverse drug reactions are under-reported in Uganda, and
healthcare workers have insufficient knowledge of existing
pharmacovigilance systems, including ADR reporting systems. To address
these challenges, there is need to sensitize and train healthcare
workers in patient-centred aspects of medicine surveillance, so as to
provide appropriate care while optimising patient safety.