Faculty of Pharmacy & Health Sciences, University of Baluchistan, Quetta, Pakistan.
Department of Statistics, University of Baluchistan, Quetta, Pakistan.
PLoS One. 2022 May 19;17(5):e0268200. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0268200. eCollection 2022.
Although community practices towards disposal of expired and unused medications vary globally, the phenomenon is neglected specifically in developing countries. We, therefore, aimed to assess the disposal practices of unused and expired pharmaceuticals among the general public in Quetta city, Pakistan.
A questionnaire-based, cross-sectional survey was conducted among 830 respondents in Quetta city, Pakistan. A pre-validated, structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Data were coded and analyzed by Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 26. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were sued and p<0.05 was taken as significant.
Almost 87% of the respondents had unused medicines at their homes and reusing the medications was the purpose of medicine storage (50%). Medicines were mostly kept in refrigerators (36.0%) followed by bedrooms (28.8%). Fifty percent of the respondents never checked the expiry date before using the medications. The procedure to dispose of nearly expired or expired medicines was unknown to 88% of the respondents and for those reasons, medicines were disposed either in household trash or flushed in the toilet or sink. Interestingly, medicines were kept at home even after being expired by 27% of the respondents. Income was associated with reason of storing medicines (p = 0.004; φc = 0.402) while educational status had significant associations with storage of medications (p = 0.002; φc = 0.399), reading about storage instructions (p = 0.008; φc = 0.452) and checking expiry date before purchasing and using the medicines (p = 0.007; φc = 0.114 and p = 0.001; φc = 0.100) respectively.
Improper storage and disposal of unused and expired medications is a common practice among study respondents and raised serious concerns. Findings of the current study call upon immediate development and implementation of the strategies to promote awareness and strengthen the pharmaceutical waste management program at the societal level.
尽管全球各国的社区在处理过期和未使用药物方面的做法各不相同，但在发展中国家，这一现象并未得到特别关注。因此，我们旨在评估巴基斯坦奎达市普通公众对未使用和过期药品的处理做法。
在巴基斯坦奎达市，我们对 830 名受访者进行了一项基于问卷的横断面调查。我们使用了经过预先验证的结构化问卷来收集数据。数据由社会科学统计软件包（SPSS）版本 26 进行编码和分析。使用描述性和推断性统计方法，p<0.05 被认为具有统计学意义。
近 87%的受访者家中有未使用的药物，储存药物的目的是再次使用（50%）。药物主要存放在冰箱（36.0%）中，其次是卧室（28.8%）。50%的受访者在使用药物之前从未检查过有效期。近 88%的受访者不知道处理即将过期或过期药物的程序，因此，药物要么被丢弃在家庭垃圾中，要么被冲进厕所或水槽。有趣的是，即使药物已经过期，仍有 27%的受访者将其存放在家中。收入与储存药物的原因相关（p=0.004；φc=0.402），而教育程度与储存药物（p=0.002；φc=0.399）、阅读储存说明（p=0.008；φc=0.452）和在购买和使用药物之前检查有效期（p=0.007；φc=0.114 和 p=0.001；φc=0.100）显著相关。
未使用和过期药物的不当储存和处理是研究对象中常见的做法，引起了严重关注。本研究的结果呼吁立即制定和实施策略，以提高认识并加强社会层面的药品废物管理计划。
