Abstract
This study aimed to assess public knowledge about medicine information, safety, and adverse drug reaction reporting (ADR) in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. A cross sectional study was conducted using purposive stratified sampling in different settings of Dammam city for three months (January-March 2020). The target population was identified as consumers who had used the medicines in the last 3 months. The questionnaire was adopted from the literature and was validated. Content and face validities were established, and reliability was assessed. The study was approved by the concerned ethics committee. A total of 915 participants returned completed questionnaires. A total of 54.4% participants aged between 18 and 30 years, 65.8% were females and 53.1% had obtained bachelor level education. The mean score for knowledge of medicines (K1) was 5.46 +/- 1.07. The mean score for knowledge regarding medication safety (K2) was 5.94 +/- 1.73. The mean score for tendency to report a suspected ADR (T1) was 3.43 +/- 1.57. Gender was a determinant of knowledge regarding medication safety (K2) (p < 0.01) and ADR reporting tendency (T1) (p < 0.01). The marital status of patients was a determinant for both knowledge of medicines (K1) (p < 0.01) and, knowledge regarding medication safety (K2) (p < 0.01). The results of this study highlighted that although the scores for knowledge of medicines, and tendency to report ADR were better, the score for knowledge regarding medication safety was unsatisfactory.