Department of Pharmacology, Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences, Mwanza, Tanzania.
School of Pharmacy, Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences, Mwanza, Tanzania.
PLoS One. 2021 Feb 4;16(2):e0246418. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0246418. eCollection 2021.
The community practice towards disposal of expired and unused medications in spite of its adverse impact have been widely neglected in many developing countries. The available guidelines in Tanzania focus on the disposal of expired medications and cosmetics in hospitals and community pharmacies only.
The aim of this study was to assess the disposal practice of expired and unused medications at household level in Mwanza city, north-western Tanzania.
The household based cross-sectional study was conducted among 359 randomly selected household members. Semi-structured questionnaires were used for interview during data collection and while STATA® version 13 was used for analysis.
Out 359 households visited, 252 (70.19%) had medications kept in their houses at the time of data collection. Among them, 10 (4.0%) households had kept medications at their houses because they were still continuing with treatment while 242 (96.0%) kept unused medications which were supposed to be discarded. The main reason for keeping unused or expired medications at home was uncompleted course of treatment (199 (82.20%) after feeling that they had recovered from illness. The main reason for discarding medications were recovering from illness (141(48.7%) and expiry (136 (46.9%). The major discarding practices for medications were disposing into domestic trashes (219 (75.5%) and pit latrines (45 (15.5%). Majority of respondents (273 (76%) were aware that improper disposal of expired medications are detrimental to human health and environment in general.
Improper disposal of unused and expired medications at household level was a common practice in the study area. Tailor-made interventions by the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) and other national as well as local stake holders are urgently needed to address the situation.
尽管过期和未使用药物的处置会产生不良影响，但许多发展中国家仍广泛忽视了社区对此类药物的处置。坦桑尼亚现有的指南仅侧重于医院和社区药店中过期药物和化妆品的处置。
本研究旨在评估坦桑尼亚西北部姆万扎市家庭层面过期和未使用药物的处置情况。
这项基于家庭的横断面研究在 359 户随机选择的家庭中进行。在数据收集期间，使用半结构式问卷进行访谈，而 STATA® 版本 13 用于分析。
在所访问的 359 户家庭中，有 252 户（70.19%）家中当时存放有药物。其中，有 10 户（4.0%）家庭将药物存放在家中，是因为他们仍在继续治疗，而 242 户（96.0%）家庭则存放有未使用的药物，这些药物本应丢弃。将未使用或过期药物存放在家中的主要原因是治疗未完成（199 户[82.20%]在感觉自己已经康复后）。丢弃药物的主要原因是康复（141 户[48.7%]）和过期（136 户[46.9%]）。丢弃药物的主要方式是将其扔进家庭垃圾（219 户[75.5%]）和坑式厕所（45 户[15.5%]）。大多数受访者（273 户[76%]）意识到过期药物的不当处置对人类健康和整体环境有害。
在研究地区，家庭层面未使用和过期药物的不当处置是一种常见做法。需要由食品和药物管理局（FDA）和其他国家及地方利益相关者制定有针对性的干预措施来解决这一问题。
