Patients' Knowledge and Attitude toward the Disposal of Medications.

Aeshah Alazmi,Rayf Abualezz,Hani Alhamdan,Mohamed Osman,Noha Abonofal,Faiz Bahadig

doi:10.1155/2017/8516741

Aeshah Alazmi, Rayf Abualezz + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/8516741

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Abstract

Background Safe disposal of medications is of high concern as malpractice may lead to harmful consequences such as undesirable effects, prescription drug abuse, overstocking, self-medication, accidental overdose, and even death. There is a lack of uniform and nationwide guidance on how patients should safely dispose their leftover medications. This study aims to assess patients' knowledge and attitude regarding the disposal of medications. Method This research is a cross-sectional study. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from various outpatient pharmaceutical services in King Abdulaziz Medical City (KAMC), Jeddah. Results The study revealed that 73% of the respondents throw the medications in the trash, 14% return the medications to a pharmacy, 5% never dispose them, and 3% donate the medications to a friend or charity centers. More than 80% of the respondents never received any information or advice from healthcare providers about safe and proper disposal of medications. Conclusion Our findings suggest that there is an immediate requirement for the establishment of collaborative and uniform guidelines for the safe disposal of leftover medications. A policy for drug donation needs to be included in routine patient education as well as educational and collective programs for the public.

Highlights

There is a lack of knowledge on how to dispose expired, unwanted, and unused medications among our participant population
Some international and national studies showed that most patients stored their medications improperly at home that may lead to undesirable effects or unintentional risks like improper self-medication, accidental overdose, and prescription drug abuse
Our study showed that nearly 73% of the participants discarded leftover, expired, unwanted, or unused medications by throwing them in the garbage or trash while 50% believed that giving leftover medications away to family, friends, or charity centers is the best method of disposal

Summary

Introduction

There is a lack of knowledge on how to dispose expired, unwanted, and unused medications among our participant population. Some international and national studies showed that most patients stored their medications improperly at home that may lead to undesirable effects or unintentional risks like improper self-medication, accidental overdose, and prescription drug abuse. These patients keep medications because they do not want to waste them, they do not know how to read and check the expiry date, or they do not know a proper and safe way to dispose them [1,2,3,4,5]. A policy for drug donation needs to be included in routine patient education as well as educational and collective programs for the public

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