title: Knowledge, attitudes, and practices survey of drug allergy among healthcare practitioners in central China: a multicenter study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Drug allergy (DA) is one of the most important contributors to iatrogenic morbidity and mortality. Currently DA remains a major challenge for healthcare practitioners (HCPs).
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices of DA among HCPs in Central China.
  
  
  METHODS
  A 25-item self-administered DA questionnaire were developed and applied in our study. The questionnaire covered 3 domains: knowledge, attitudes, and practice patterns. From July 2015 to October 2015, HCPs in 7 cities of Central China anonymously participated in the cross-sectional study.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 350 HCPs participated the study, 91 questionnaires uncompleted and 259 were analyzed. Among the respondents, 166 (64.1%) were doctors, 55 (21.2%) were nurses and 38 (14.7%) were medical students. The mean knowledge precision was 59.8%. HCPs agreed that drug induced immediate allergic reactions were IgE mediated (83.4%) and happened within 6 hours after drug administration (89.6%), and epinephrine was the first choice for drug induced anaphylaxis (79.5%). They also agreed that penicillin skin test was valuable to predict allergic reaction (88.4%). However, high proportion of HCPs (66.0%) believed glucocorticoids had an impact on drug skin test rather than antihistamines (4.2%), 47.1% never performed positive and negative control during skin test. More than 90% of the respondents would take patients' allergic history before drug administration, 98.8% agreed that they should receive advanced training of DA knowledge and practice.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The HCPs demonstrated a low level of knowledge regarding DA. Advanced education is urgently needed for better understanding and filling the gaps exist in knowledge and clinical practice of DA.
authors.affiliation: Department of Allergy, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430070, China.
authors.forename: Yin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Allergy, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430070, China.
authors.forename: Rongfei
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Allergy, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430070, China.
authors.forename: Nan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Allergy, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430070, China.
authors.forename: Wenjing
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Allergy, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430070, China.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Allergy, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430070, China.
authors.forename: Shucheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Allergy, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430070, China.
authors.forename: Guanghui
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Liu
keywords: Attitude; Knowledge; Practice, Drug allergy, Healthcare practitioner