Impact of knowledge, attitude and preceptor behaviour in pharmacovigilance education

Abstract

This study aimed to determine the level of pharmacovigilance (PV) education in pharmacy programmes and to evaluate the predictive factors for the intent to report adverse drug reactions (ADRs) by pharmacy students in South Korea. Self-administered questionnaires were collected from a regionally stratified nationwide convenience sample of pharmacy students in September 2017. The association between students' intent to report ADRs and their knowledge and attitude was evaluated by using multivariate logistic regression analysis. In total, 303 pharmacy students participated in the survey; the average age of students was 26.7 (standard deviation 2.9) years and 40.6% were males. Eighty-eight students (29%) marked the degree of their intent as "strongly high." Increased knowledge of ADR reporting methods and positive attitude towards the need for ADR reporting were significant predictors of the intent to report ADRs. Further, witnessing reporting by the preceptor (adjusted odds ratio, 2.37; 95% confidence interval, 1.26-4.46; P < 0.01) was significantly correlated with the knowledge on and attitude towards ADR reporting of pharmacy students. The findings of our study indicated the need for improvements in PV curriculum, such as educational content focused on ADR reporting methods and demonstration of a preceptor's reporting in pharmacy practice experiential rotation, within Korean college of pharmacy curriculum.