Awareness and Disposal Practices of Unused and Expired Medication among Health Care Professionals and Students in a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital

Abstract

Medicines play a very significant role for treating many diseases and conditions, but at the end of the treatment it is very important to dispose them of properly. So, the knowledge and awareness of proper drug disposal are essential for safe environment. Lack of knowledge and practice can lead to various problems like environmental pollution and various health hazards directly or indirectly. Hence, the study was aimed to assess the knowledge, practice, and awareness towards disposal of unused / expired drugs among healthcare professionals such as doctor, medical students, pharmacy students and nurses. This was a cross-sectional questionnaire-based study conducted in a tertiary care teaching hospital. About 400 participants in each category were included in the study. The questionnaire consisted of three parts which included demography, and multiple choice questions related to knowledge and awareness of the drug disposal. The collected data was expressed in percentage. A total of 393 participants have completed the survey which includes 32% males and 68% females. It was found that the commonest discarding pattern of the expired/ unused medicines was through household trash (67%). A total of 349 (89%) were aware of the significance of improper disposal. It was observed that the participants 44(11.1%) had partial knowledge about proper drug disposal but there was a lack of practice 264 (67.1%) of safe disposal methods. This study aimed to create an awareness to bridge the lacunae between knowledge, practice of proper and environmental safe methods of disposing expired/ unused drugs among health care professionals.

Knowledge and Disposal Practice of Leftover and Expired Medicine: A Cross-Sectional Study from Nursing and Pharmacy Students’ Perspectives

“…Universally, the correct disposal of medicine poses a challenge and is receiving increasing attention [1][2][3][4][5]. A lack of knowledge about proper disposal of unused medicine can lead to serious consequences, such as an accumulation of toxins and chemicals from the medicine into the environment, unintentional overdose, and prescription drug abuse [6].…”

“…Reports have confirmed a lack of knowledge among health care professionals about the significant risks of unused or expired medicine, including diversion, abuse, and accidental overdose [16]. A study by Raja et al among health care professionals reported partial knowledge about proper drug disposal and a lack of safe disposal practices [5].…”

“…The literature has also shown that health care students acquire information about drug use and disposal from a range of sources, including health care practitioners, curricula, media, teachers, and medicine package inserts. Knowledge about proper drug practice formed prior to graduation may affect medicine disposal practices later during employment [5].…”

“…The clinical benefits resulting from collaboration among health care professionals, such as pharmacists and nurses, have been proven by many studies [12,17,18]. Nurse practitioner and pharmacist consultations in family practice resulted in major improvements in the correct use of medication [5,17]. Fletcher reported that nurse practitioner and pharmacist counseling is important in improving the appropriate use of medication [15].…”

“…While a number of studies exist about safe drug disposal knowledge and practice, much of the early work is limited to the general public, both in Saudi Arabia and in other countries [2][3][4][5]. There is a shortage of research on the knowledge and practice of drug disposal among health care students, such as pharmacy and nursing students, who are on the 'front lines' in the health care setting.…”