Knowledge, Attitude And Practice of Traditional Medicine-related Adverse Drug Reaction (adr) Reporting Among Hospital Pharmacists and Traditional Medicine Practitioners in Thailand

Abstract

To date, many studies were conducted to examine knowledge, attitude, and practice of adverse drug reaction (ADR) reporting among health care practitioners. However, a very limited number of the studies were specific to traditional medicine related-ADR reporting. In addition, studies among traditional medicine practitioners, who are key persons for safety monitoring of traditional medicine are scarce. This study aimed to evaluate knowledge, attitude, and practice of traditional medicine-related ADR reporting among hospital pharmacists and traditional medicine practitioners in Thailand. Furthermore, factors associated with ever reported traditional medicine-related ADRs were investigated. A cross-sectional study using mail questionnaire survey was conducted. Samples were hospital pharmacists and traditional medicine practitioners, who were currently working at the selected 205 hospitals throughout the countries. Overall response rate of the survey was 47.56% (195/410). Of the total respondents, 107 (54.9%) were pharmacists while 87 (44.6%) were traditional medicine practitioner. We found that pharmacists had higher knowledge score than traditional medicine practitioners (15.47 + 3.25 VS 11.99 + 2.99, p < 0.001). Both pharmacists and traditional medicine practitioner had positive attitude towards ADR reporting. Both groups of practitioners agreed that ADRs reporting improved the safety of traditional medicine. Nevertheless, only one third of pharmacist and traditional medicine practitioner have ever reported traditional medicine related-ADRs (34.9% VS 26.4% p = 0.206). Factors associated with ever reported ADR related to traditional medicines were knowledge, education, and duration of work experiences. Improving knowledge through training program was essential in promoting traditional medicine-related ADR reporting in Thailand.