Judging Pharmaceutical Environmental Risk by its Cover? The Effects of Prescription Medication and Disease Severity on Environmental Risk Perception

Abstract

Recent wastewater analyses performed in care homes for the elderly showed high levels of water pollution resulting from pharmaceutical waste. The way people perceive the environmental risk of pharmaceuticals can contribute to reversing this problem, but the factors that influence risk perception remain relatively unknown. The aims of the study are two‐fold. We first focused on exploring the levels of knowledge regarding environment/water pollution due to pharmaceutical residues from the groups responsible for prescribing (health professionals), handling (staff), and consuming pharmaceuticals (residents) in care homes for the elderly. Second, we assessed the environmental risk perception of pharmaceuticals based on two main factors: prescription medication (nonprescribed versus prescribed) and disease severity (milder versus severe disease), accounting for their level of knowledge (deficit versus sufficiency of knowledge). The study was designed based on correlational research. Data were collected in homes for the elderly located in three Southwestern European countries (N = 300), using self‐report surveys. Current knowledge was perceived to be low and the need to know more was perceived to be high, across all groups. As hypothesized, results indicated that to assess the environmental risk, participants made use of information that was unrelated to pharmaceutical persistence, bioaccumulation, and toxicity (PBT). Prescribed pharmaceuticals and/or medication used to treat severe diseases were perceived as being more hazardous for the environment. Simple main effects analysis comparing between knowledge levels confirmed that this effect occurred mostly when participants had knowledge deficit for disease severity but not for prescription medication. These misconceptions might discourage taking an active role in reducing the impact of pharmaceutical residues in the environment.

Modeling Predictors of Medication Waste Reduction Intention in Algeria: Extending the Theory of Planned Behavior

“…In the medication waste field, we can define risk perception as assessing the risks associated with poor disposal practices of excess medications and knowing the negative consequences of those actions on both health and the environment. The previous literature revealed that medication waste contributes to environmental damage (such as water and air poisoning) which negatively affects living organisms and human health [ 19 , 21 ]. In some cases, the medication waste can cause air poisoning, which results in or exacerbates various respiratory diseases (asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, emphysema).…”

“…); storage of unused medications; throwing medications in rubbish, latrines, and drains; as well as donating stored medications to relatives, friends, and neighbors [ 10 ]. Moreover, these behaviors are often associated with a lack of environmental awareness and knowledge about the negative consequences and effects of wasted medications [ 1 , 18 ] and lower levels of perceived risk associated with wasted medications [ 21 ]. In this context, Kahssay et al [ 5 ] found that 84.1% of the respondents in Ethiopia “had never heard/learned” about methods of safe disposal of medications.…”

“…Cortés et al [ 24 ] (p. 1) stated that “a population’s perception of environmental health hazards is a powerful driving force for action and engagement in safety and health behaviors and can also inform the development of effective and more sustainable environmental health policies”. Luís et al [ 21 ] argue that the environmental risk perception of medications can contribute to solving the waste problem.…”