Modifiable Risk Factors Associated With Disposal of Unused Prescription Drugs by Parents of Adolescents

Abstract

The safe disposal of unused medications is one primary prevention strategy to reduce nonmedical prescription drug use among adolescents. We sought to identify modifiable risk factors associated with disposal of unused prescription drugs by parents of adolescents residing in ten south central Kentucky counties with disposal programs. In the fall of 2017, 4148 parents of adolescents participated in an anonymous, paper-based survey. We conducted generalized logit mixed models adjusted for within-school clustering to assess the relationship between disposal behaviors and modifiable risk factors while controlling for respondents' sociodemographic characteristics. The analytic sample consisted of parents in households in which someone had been prescribed an opioid medication within the past 12 months (N=627). Our findings indicated that almost 42% of parents reported disposing of unused prescription medication within the past 12 months, and the majority disposed of medications at home rather than using a disposal program. Parents who perceived that any, compared to none, of their child's close friends engaged in nonmedical prescription opioid use had higher odds of reporting use of a disposal program. Parents who were aware of disposal programs, compared to those who were not aware, had greater odds of using them, rather than not disposing at all or disposing them at home. Compared to parents who perceived prescription drugs to be hard for adolescents to obtain for nonmedical use, parents who believed that prescription drugs were easily accessible to adolescents for nonmedical use had lower odds of using disposal programs than disposing of medications at home. Collectively, our Terms of use and reuse: academic research for non-commercial purposes, see here for full terms. https://www.springer.com/aamterms-v1

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Applying blockchain technology in the corporate bond model for default risk assessment under the marketization principle

“…Finally, the application is carried out after a series of work is done. The application layer's corresponding application scenarios are the main content, typically including programmable currency, programmable finance, and programmable society (Li et al 2018a , b ; Egan et al 2020 ).…”

Development and Evaluation of Messages to Facilitate Secure Storage and Disposal of Prescribed Opioid Medication

“…The vast majority of these unused opioid medications are retained rather than disposed. [9][10][11] An excess of opioid medications has the potential for diversion, knowingly or unknowingly, to the prescription holder. Over half of individuals who report prescription opioid misuse obtain these medications from a relative or friend, with or without their knowledge, and 37% divert their own prescription for nonmedical use 12 Thus, diversion of excess medication is the primary source of opioid medications for misuse.…”