Design and Validation of a Questionnaire to Evaluate Healthcare Providers’ Practices of Pharmacovigilance
Abstract
Background: Pharmacovigilance is an important tool that ensures the safe use of medications during their entire life cycle. Healthcare providers are the main contributors to pharmacovigilance activities, and reporting adverse drug reactions is a core obligation of their clinical practice.The aim was to evaluate the validity and reliability of an adapted and translated version of the knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) questionnaire specified on pharmacovigilance among healthcare providers. Methods: An observational cross-sectional survey was performed among 30 healthcare providers (n=30) to obtain their demographic data. This pilot study was conducted in Mosul city hospitals in November 2024. The other data were collected using the translated KAP questionnaire which consists of 14 questions related to knowledge, 6 questions related to attitude, 5 questions related to practice, and 1 question related to barriers to adverse drug reaction reporting. Descriptive statistics were employed. Reliability was tested using Cronbachs alpha. Results: Ten healthcare providers of each profession were included in the study (pharmacist, physician, nurse). The mean knowledge score was 8.03 2.10 out of 14, while the mean attitude was 26.36 2.25 out of 30, and the practice mean was 2.2667 1.94 out of 5. The internal consistency was found to be good (Cronbachs alpha =0.729, 0.722, and 0.722 for knowledge, attitude, and practice, respectively). Face-content validity was employed, and five specialists evaluated the validity of the questionnaire. Construct validity was also proven, where the total KAP scores were shown to be significantly higher among healthcare providers with a history of pharmacovigilance training. Conclusion: This study concluded that the translated KAP pharmacovigilance questionnaire is reliable and valid for evaluating the knowledge, attitude and practice among healthcare providers in Nineveh.
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