ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Spontaneous reporting is regarded as a cornerstone of pharmacovigilance (PV) but presents many limitations, including varying quality and completeness of information, which is essential for causality assessment. AIM: This study aimed to evaluate the completeness of adverse drug reaction (ADR) reports in South Africa based on the vigiGrade completeness score. SETTING: The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA). METHODS: A cross-sectional, descriptive study of all reports received by SAHPRA and submitted to VigiBase® in 2017 was conducted. A report with a vigiGrade score 0.8 is considered well-documented. RESULTS: The mean completeness score for the 8438 reports received was 0.456 (s.d. = 0.221). Only 11.3% of reports had a completeness score 0.8. The completeness of reports submitted by consumers professionals did not significantly differ from reports by physicians, pharmacists or other healthcare professionals (d ≤ 0.2). Reports of reactions that resulted in death (M = 0.572, s.e. = 0.007), disability (M = 0.491, s.e. 0.033) or were life threatening (M = 0.474, s.e. = 0.013) had a medium to large practically significant effect (0.5 ≥ d ≤ 0.8) on the completeness score compared with reports of congenital anomaly (M = 0.348, s.e. = 0.089). CONCLUSION: The completeness of reports submitted by consumers is comparable to those submitted by healthcare professionals. The completeness of reports was low and multiple measures to improve reporting are recommended.Contribution: This study describes the completeness of ADR reports in South Africa and the results can be used to improve training.