Do parents in Saudi Arabia store medications safely?

Abstract

Background and objectives: Safe storage of medications can prevent the accidental poisoning of children. How medications are stored in homes in the Saudi community is not known. The objective of this study was to assess the safety measures for drug storage that are employed by parents to avoid unintentional drug poisoning of children below the age of 6 years. Materials and methods: This was a cross-sectional survey study based on a validated questionnaire created using the Survey Monkey online tool. Results: Ninety-three percent of the respondents did not store medications in secure and safe places such as locked boxes or locked drawers; however, more than half of the respondents (54.3%) stored medications at a level that was above the eye level of an adult. The majority of drugs (60.2%) were kept in the fridge; 45.9% were kept in kitchens, 45.1% in bedrooms, 8% in living rooms and 2% in bathrooms. Thirty percent of the respondents stored medications in two places, and 10% stored medication in three or more places. Eighty-nine percent disposed of unwanted medicines by throwing them in the trash, only 11% returned them to the pharmacy, and 11% flush them down the toilet. Conclusions: These results raise concerns about how drugs are stored and disposed of in the community. Additional community education and awareness programs regarding the safe storage of drugs in the home and the identification of useful and accessible methods of drug disposal are needed.

Investigating the disposal of expired and unused medication in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: a cross-sectional study

“…Although a study conducted by Ruwailia et al [21] focused on medication storage, their result regarding medication disposal was comparable to our finding where 87 % of participants in their study disposed of their unused medication via household waste. Moreover, this method has been identified as the most common means of disposal in several other countries including the USA, the UK, Serbia, and Kuwait [7,[13][14][15][16][17]23].…”

“…This low proportion could be explained by the lack of comprehensive drug disposal policies and pharmacies with take-back programs in Saudi Arabia [21]. In comparison, returning unwanted medication to a pharmacy was the most prominent disposal method in Sweden, where 45 % of respondents did so [24].…”

“…Only one recent study has assessed the safety measures used by parents to store and dispose of medication to prevent their children from being poisoned [21]. Several studies were conducted in Kuwait to explore practice, awareness, and opinion concerning the disposal of unused and expired medications [22,23].…”

Household Medicines Disposal Practices in Maiduguri, North-Eastern Nigeria

“…This has public wellbeing, ecosystem, and economic implications for the citizens and the healthcare delivery system at large (34). In contrast, earlier studies conducted in Nigeria (6,35) and other countries (22,26,27,(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45)(46)(47) had identified discarding in the household garbage as the most common means of disposal of unused/unwanted medicines. Moreover, an online-based survey conducted in Turkey reported that 34.0% of the respondents returned unused medicines to the health facility (48).…”

Unsafe storage of household medicines: results from a cross-sectional study of four-year-olds from the 2004 Pelotas birth cohort (Brazil)

“…Beirens et al [24] conducted a cross-sectional observational survey in the Netherlands using the same outcome definition as this study and obtained that 50.1% of the toddlers surveyed were exposed to unsafe storage of possible poisonous products in the home. Al Ruwaili et al, in a cross-sectional survey conducted in Saudi Arabia, found that 93% of children under 6 years old were at risk of accidental poisoning by medicines [28].…”