ASSESSMENT OF ADVERSE DRUG REACTION REPORTING PRACTICES AMONG HEALTH WORKERS IN NNEWI, NIGERIA

Aim: Health workers play an integral role in the success of safetysurveillance of drugs by enhancing the detection of serious, unexpected and unusual adverse drug reactions (ADRs). Our aim was to assess theADR reporting among health workers in Nnewi, Nigeria.

Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study of 372 health workers in different health facilities in Nnewi North LGA of Anambra state was done. The participants were doctors, pharmacists and nurses, selected using multistage sampling technique. Datacollection 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 presence of statistical significance in the practice of ADR reporting among these health workers.A p value of < 0.05 was considered significant.

Results: Out of the 372 respondents studied, 255 (68.5%) were females and 117 (31.5%) were males. This comprises 241 (64.8%) Nurses/related cadres, 109 (29.3%) doctorsand 22 (5.9%)pharmacists. Three hundred and ten (83.3%) of the respondents have suspected an ADR without reporting it(p=0.01). While 156 (50.2%) of them did not report suspected ADR because they were uncertain that the reaction was caused by drug(p=0.000). There are statistically significantdifferences in these practices among these professional groups.

Conclusions: This study showed thatdespite statistically significantdifferences, there was generally poor practice of ADR reporting among the health workers studied. We recommend that reporting forms, reporting guidelines and necessary logisticsare made available, with regular training and retraining of health workers on ADR reporting.