Adverse Drug Reactions Awareness among Sample of People in Northern Region, Saudi Arabia

Background: Drug reactions are a fundamental issue in many branches of medicine. Adverse drug reactions result in high mortality and morbidity globally. There is always the risk of unwanted side effects associated with the use of any substance that has a therapeutic effect. The safe use of drugs remains a critical issue for all health care professionals.

Objective: The current study investigates the level of drug reaction awareness among the public in Northern Saudi Arabia. Materials and methods: This was a questionnaire based cross-sectional study. Data were collected using Google forms, which were coded and processed using Microsoft excel and SPSS version 23.

Results: Altogether 475 people participated in this study including 382 women (80.4%) and 93 men (19.6%). Of the 475 participants, 83.6% were aware of drug reactions, 40.4% believed drug reactions are hereditary, 50.9% had received a previous skin allergy test, and 21.3% had received a previous blood test for an allergy.

Conclusion: The public in Northern Saudi Arabia are aware of drug reactions. We found that only half of the participants in our study had received a skin allergy test. It is the responsibility of physicians to provide the community with a valuable database of information on the adverse effects of drugs. We recommend that governmental and private institutions in Saudi Arabia carry out more studies with a larger sample to improve the understanding and awareness of drug reactions.