Investigation of awareness knowledge and opinions on pharmacovigilance of 3RD, 4TH, and 5TH grade students in three selected pharmacy faculties

Adverse drug reactions (ADR) are one of the major problems that cause mortality and morbidity in the community. Spontaneous reporting of ADRs in pharmacovigilance systems is one of the ways in which the identification of adverse effects. Although pharmacists have a large role in the reporting, spontaneous reporting rates of pharmacists in our country are quite low. The aim of the study was to examine the awareness, knowledge and views of a group of pharmacy students about pharmacovigilance and adverse event reporting. In this cross-sectional analytical study, a questionnaire was applied to 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students in three public universities in Ankara and Istanbul. The overall response rate of the students was 80% (n = 1035). 86% of the students were aware of the term pharmacovigilance and 75% were aware of the existence of the national pharmacovigilance center. The overall mean ± SD score with regard to the level of knowledge of ADRs in the overall group was 58.00 ± 17.02 out of a maximum score of 100. Factors affecting knowledge level; the grade of the student, the status of education, the presence of health professional relatives and their faculty. Some of the main factors that prevent students from reporting ADRs in the future were the uncertainty of the causality of adverse events, the lack of information on how to fill out the reporting forms and where to report them and the lack of time. It was found that students with effective opinions about adverse effects and pharmacovigilance had higher knowledge level. In the study, although pharmacy students generally thought that pharmacovigilance system is a professional responsibility and have positive intentions for reporting ADRs, it was seen that students' knowledge about reporting ADRs and pharmacovigilance activities is insufficient. Key Words: Pharmacovigilance, pharmacy students, awareness, knowledge, opinion.