Spontaneous reporting of adverse drug reaction among health professionals in Ghana

Morrison Asiamah; Kwadwo Owusu Akuffo; Pricillia Nortey; Nina Donkor; Anthony Danso-Appiah

doi:10.1186/s13690-021-00783-1

Spontaneous reporting of adverse drug reaction among health professionals in Ghana

Arch Public Health. 2022 Jan 20;80(1):33. doi: 10.1186/s13690-021-00783-1.

Authors

Morrison Asiamah¹, Kwadwo Owusu Akuffo², Pricillia Nortey¹, Nina Donkor³, Anthony Danso-Appiah^{4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Epidemiology and Disease Control, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana.
² Department of Optometry and Visual Science, College of Science, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.
³ Department of Pharmacy Practice, College of Health Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.
⁴ Department of Epidemiology and Disease Control, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana. adanso-appiah@ug.edu.gh.
⁵ University of Ghana Centre for Evidence Synthesis and Policy, School of Public Health, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana. adanso-appiah@ug.edu.gh.

Abstract

Background: Spontaneous reporting of adverse drug reactions (ADR) is an effective means of ensuring postmarketing surveillance of drugs, and health professionals play a cardinal role through voluntary reporting of ADR. However, the pharmacovigilance system in Ghana is plagued with under-reporting issues, which is of public health concern.

Method: A questionnaire-based cross-sectional study involving 268 health professionals at Kpone-Katamanso District was carried out. Data on spontaneous reporting of ADR, demographics of participants, knowledge, and attitudes of professionals towards reporting and factors that may influence ADR reporting were collected. Logistic regression models were used to examine the association of the independent variables with spontaneous reporting of ADR.

Result: Overall, 77.6% (208) of the 268 respondents had observed ADR; however, only 17.3% of the respondents had ever reported an ADR to the Ghana FDA. Health professionals who had average knowledge on spontaneous reporting of ADR were 51.9%, while 30.3% had good knowledge of spontaneous reporting of ADR. After adjustment on potential confounding variables (Knowledge, Feedback from FDA, Uncertainty about cause of ADR, Severity of ADR), Age (AOR = 2.26, 95%CI = 1.25-4.10), Fear of Legal Consequences (AOR = 0.15, 95%CI = 0.41-0.51), Time Constraint (AOR = 0.3, 95%CI = 0.10-0.91), Pharmacovigilance training (AOR = 18.78, 95%CI = 5.46-64.59) and Unavailability of Reporting form (AOR = 0.28, 95%CI = 0.09-0.88) were found to be significantly associated spontaneous reporting of ADR.

Conclusion: The proportion of health professionals in the Kpone- Katamanso District who spontaneously reported observed ADR was low though they had average knowledge about ADR reporting. This underscores the need for a policy to be implemented that makes spontaneous reporting of adverse drug reaction mandatory for health professionals.

Keywords: Adverse drug reaction; Ghana; Health professionals; Reporting.