Awareness of home drug storage and utilization habits: Saudi study

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate the awareness of residents in Saudi Arabia toward in-home drug storage and the using habits of their medications. This is a descriptive study that involved an electronic survey about drug storage and utilization habits. It was developed, pretested, and distributed via the social media among the population in Saudi-Arabia. About 1400 persons participated in this study. Around 84.4%, 96.6% and 58.3% of participants stored their insulin syringes, antibiotic or cough-syrup after opening in there frigerator, respectively. Moreover, most of them avoided use or discard their products upon exposure to the sun or forgetting them in the car for the whole day. 87.5% disclosed that they usually check the expiration date on drug products before using and 49.7% added they always follow the instructions regarding duration-of-use compared with 45.85% who said sometimes they follow it. 99.7% of them reported that they avoid using products upon change in color or formulation. Finally, variable-correlation was found between the age distribution of participants and their responses. The results revealed that the participants exhibited promising awareness toward the in-home drug storage in Saudi Arabia

Prevalence and Practice of Unused and Expired Medicine—A Community-Based Study among Saudi Adults in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

“…Our study reported that most commonly leftover medicines were painkillers, analgesics, and antibiotics, and small proportions were for diabetics and hypertensives. These results were comparable to the study by Mohammad Bashaar and Koshok MI [ 19 – 23 ].…”

Public Awareness Regarding Household Drug Storage, Qassim Region, Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…The questionnaire Questions are designed with the help of reviewing previous literatures in the same discipline. 6 , 7 , 14 The questionnaire (as shown in the Appendix ) was divided into four sections as follows: sociodemographic data (7 multiple-choice questions), household drug storage conditions (6 multiple-choice questions), storage behaviors (4 multiple-choice questions) and, finally, the last question regarding drug information sources. Since Arabic is the native language for most of the Qassim population, the questions were initially developed in English and then translated into simplified Arabic.…”

Prevalence of Home Storage of Medicines and Associated Factors in Iraq

“…By this argument, the participants revealed high percent that they often tested before use on the dates of expiry, while the other householders had no idea about the expiry date of these medicines. Compared to the above findings (87.5%) of the participants of koshok et al study [14] reported checking the expiry date of their medication before use, 55% of the participants checking their home pharmacy units for expired pharmaceuticals, while 6.9% of Ali et al participants [17] confirmed that they did not check the expiry date previously stated. To reduce the health effects of expired drugs a public teaching on the existence and risks of expired drugs, and the disposal of unused drugs is required [12].…”

“…The increased use of medicines raises the risk of accumulating medicines at home, both long-term and short-term care [13]. The availability of such medicinal products stored at home is a direct risk factor for inappropriate medicines using behavior such as self-medication by, finally, promoting the use of residues from previous treatments and OTC medicines for symptoms previously experienced [13], continuing to use stored drugs when required, sharing drugs between families, poor adhesion, and consequent enforcement [14].…”

“…Research in Sudan shows (97.5%) that at least one medicine has been stored in the home [3], while the prevalence in Basra-Iraq is similar (94%) [1]. On the other hand, a study involved the Saudi population showed that 77.66% of its participants kept drugs at home [14], while studies conducted in Northern Uganda [10] and Northern Ethiopia (9) reported lower prevalence rates of stored drugs than this study as the rates were (35.1%) and (29%), respectively. Uncontrolled delivery of medicines and the existence of an enormous number of pharmacy outlets without prescription can be due to the high prevalence rates [1].…”