Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting among Iranian Pharmacists: Investigation of Barriers and Attitudes

Adverse drug reaction (ADR) has been known as a main reason to mortality, which pushes a significant pressure on health care resources; in addition reporting ADR could be helpful to decrease the consequences. The present study aimed to determine the attitude and barriers of not reporting ADR cases among a group of Iranian pharmacologists. This crosssectional study was conducted among 117 pharmacists during 2014. Participants were selected in random sampling with probability proportional to size among pharmacy in the west of Iran. Data were collected by using questionnaire in selfreport. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 21 using t statistical tests and bivariate correlations. Mean score of the ADR report barriers was 17.82 years (ranging from 7 to 35 years). Lack of motivation, not having report forms available, inefficiency of reporting and lack of investigations received higher scores as major barriers. Also, increasing the trust between patients and pharmacist, decreasing health care system charges and efficiency had the highest mean scores considering attitudes. Generally, there was a meaningful statistical relationship between reporting ADR by pharmacist and barriers (P = 0.007). According to the results from the present study, it seems essential to hold retraining programs in order to improve reporting ADRs by pharmacists, introducing advantages of reporting ADRs and removing barriers to report ADRs.