An investigation of pharmacovigilance and reporting of adverse drug reactions in hospitals: a cross-sectional study in China

Background Pharmacovigilance is a science that plays a significant role in reducing ADRs and helps predict adverse reactions to drugs in community. To safely use drugs in treatment and prevention of disease, adverse drug reaction has been paid more attention. Objectives To evaluate the future needs of existing systems, the paper investigated the current state of pharmacovigilance and the reporting of ADR in Chinese hospitals. Methods This cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study involved 10,063 pharmacists, doctors, and nurses from primary, secondary, and tertiary hospitals in all 31 provinces of China. It was commissioned by the National Centre for ADR Monitoring of China and conducted in March 2020. Three areas were assessed: sociodemographic characteristics of participants, awareness of the pharmacovigilance system, and the current state of hospitals' reporting of ADRs. Chi-square tests were used to calculate P values. Results Health care professionals had heard the term "pharmacovigilance" previously (89.40%) and knew the reporting object (68.47%), content (65.94%), and range (64.83%) of pharmacovigilance. Most hospitals dispatched responsible professionals (87.64%) and departments (86.25%) to monitor ADR reporting. A total of 58.66% of tertiary medical, 45.25% of secondary, and 38.90% of primary hospitals extracted ADRs from a hospital information system. Moreover, 53.09% of tertiary medical, 38.93% of secondary, and 23.89% of primary hospitals had established a prescription automatic screening system to warn about risks for ADRs. Health care professionals' reports (99.92%) and patient feedback (77.99%) were included in most hospitals' ADR reporting. Conclusions Chinese health care professionals generally have good awareness of pharmacovigilance, and pharmacovigilance is relatively more advanced in China compared to other developing countries.