ASSESSING THE KNOWLEDGE OF FOURTH YEAR PHARMACY STUDENTS IN GHANA ON PHARMACOVIGILANCE

According to the Uppsala Report for 2016, Ghana was among the countries with a low range of 5-50 reports per 1,000,000 population in a year. This research sought to establish a possible connection between lack of knowledge and underreporting. The study involved an observational, cross sectional survey of fourth year pharmacy students. A self-administered, anonymous questionnaire was designed using google forms and distributed to the students via web link which was shared using the social media platform, WhatsApp. The collected data was coded and entered into Microsoft Excel 2016 and a codebook was created using Microsoft Word 2016. The mean knowledge of respondents showed that majority of them had basic knowledge about pharmacovigilance. Though most of the students did not know about any adverse drug reaction reporting centers in Ghana and drugs banned due to these reactions. This could promote underreporting and administration of dangerous drugs making these future pharmacists renege on their commitment to be ‘friends of the human race' (i.e. Amicus Humani Generis). Hence it is of utmost importance that these aspects be added to the course outline to improve their knowledge.