A household survey of medicine storage practices in Gondar town, northwestern Ethiopia

Eshetie Melese Birru,Abdrrahman Shemsu Surur,Befikadu Legesse,Dessalegn Asmelashe Gelayee,Dawit Wondimsigegn,Assefa Belay,Fitsum Sebsibe Teni,Zewdneh Shewamene

doi:10.1186/s12889-017-4152-8

Eshetie Melese Birru, Abdrrahman Shemsu Surur + Show 6 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-017-4152-8

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Abstract

BackgroundHousehold surveys are crucial to get accurate information on how medicines are acquired, and used by consumers, as they provide the best evidence in the area. The objective of this study was to document household medicine storage practices in Gondar town, northwestern Ethiopia.MethodsA cross-sectional household survey was conducted from April 5 to May 6, 2015. In the study, 809 households were surveyed from four sub-cities in the town selected through multistage sampling with 771 included in the final analysis. Data on the extent of storage, storage conditions, sources of medicines and their current status among others were collected through structured interviews and observations. The data were entered in to Epidata version 3.1, exported to and analyzed using Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21.ResultsOf the 771 households in the study, 44.2% stored medicines. Presence of family members with chronic illness(es) and higher levels of household incomes predicted higher likelihood of medicine storage. In the households which allowed observation of stored medicines (n = 299), a mean of 1.85 [SD = 1.09] medicines per household were found. By category, anti-infectives for systemic use (23.9%), medicines for alimentary tract and metabolism (19.2%) and those for cardiovascular system (17.7%) ranked top. Among individual medicines stored, diclofenac (10.7%), paracetamol (9.9%) and amoxicillin (8.0%) were on top of the list. Dispensaries (97.8%) and physicians (83.5%) were almost exclusive sources of medicines and advices/orders for medicines respectively. Nearly two-thirds of the medicines found were on use and a vast majority (76.5%) were stored in chests of drawers. Proportion of expired medicines was very low (3.14%).ConclusionsThe use of physicians’ and pharmacists’ advice to get medicines; use of dispensaries as principal sources, large proportion of medicines being in use and very low proportion of expiry showed good practices. However, storage places of medicines were not purpose built. Encouraging good practices through continued medicine use education and advocating appropriate medicine storage in medicine cabinets is required to improve storage conditions and consequent use of medicines.

Highlights

Household surveys are crucial to get accurate information on how medicines are acquired, and used by consumers, as they provide the best evidence in the area
The findings showed the proportion of households which stored medicines ranged from one-fifth to more than one-half in different parts of the country [27,28,29]
Nearly half of the households stored medicines mostly acquired through physician advise almost entirely from dispensaries

Summary

Introduction

Household surveys are crucial to get accurate information on how medicines are acquired, and used by consumers, as they provide the best evidence in the area. Medicines found in households are commonly sourced from health institution dispensaries through prescriptions or from pharmacies with or without prescriptions. Teni et al BMC Public Health (2017) 17:238 crucial to get accurate information on how medicines are acquired and used by consumers. Such studies are important as they are the best sources of evidence in the area [1, 4]

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