Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, KIST Medical College, Lalitpur, Nepal.
Department of Community Health Sciences and School of Public Health, Patan Academy of Health Sciences, Patan, Lalitpur, Nepal.
PLoS One. 2022 Aug 4;17(8):e0272635. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0272635. eCollection 2022.
Unused medicines can be stored by many people at their places of residence and houses for later use. This study evaluated knowledge, and attitudes regarding unused and expired medicines and explored medicine storage and disposal practices among selected households in the Kathmandu valley, Nepal.
A cross-sectional study with a two-stage cluster survey design was done using a semi-structured questionnaire from April to October 2021. The sample size (total number of households) after adjusting for design effect and non-response rate was 210 and the study population was the household heads. Simple random sampling was done to select clusters during the first stage and systematic random sampling to select households during the second stage. Descriptive statistics and t-test/one-way ANOVA were used to compare the respondents' average knowledge scores. Practice variables were presented using frequency distribution.
Around half the respondents were from the Kathmandu district, nearly 20% were from Bhaktapur and 30% were from Lalitpur. Nearly two-thirds were male and about 25% had a bachelor's degree. Nearly 90% of respondents agreed that storage of excess medicines at home may promote self-medication. Similarly, 97.6% of respondents agreed there is a lack of adequate information on the safe disposal of unused medicines. The majority [125 (59.5%)] of participants always checked the expiry date of medicines. The safe methods of medicine disposal were not known by 137 (65.2%) participants. Throwing in a dustbin was the preferred method of expired medicine disposal.
The level of knowledge and practice of disposing of unused and expired medicines requires improvement. Educational interventions may help improve awareness further. Creating a chart summarizing disposal procedures of common medicines is important. Similar studies in other regions are required.
许多人会在家中或住所储存未使用的药品以备后用。本研究评估了尼泊尔加德满都谷地部分家庭对未使用和过期药品的知识和态度，探讨了他们的药品储存和处理习惯。
本研究采用两阶段整群抽样设计的横断面研究，于 2021 年 4 月至 10 月使用半结构式问卷进行。在调整设计效果和无应答率后，样本量（家庭总数）为 210 户，研究对象为家庭户主。第一阶段采用简单随机抽样选择群集，第二阶段采用系统随机抽样选择家庭。采用描述性统计和 t 检验/单因素方差分析比较受访者的平均知识得分。实践变量采用频数分布表示。
约一半的受访者来自加德满都，近 20%来自巴克塔普尔，30%来自拉利特布尔。近三分之二是男性，约 25%有学士学位。近 90%的受访者认为在家中储存多余的药品可能会促进自我用药。同样，97.6%的受访者认为缺乏有关安全处理未使用药品的充分信息。大多数[125（59.5%）]参与者总是检查药品的有效期。137 名（65.2%）参与者不知道安全处理药品的方法。将过期药品扔进垃圾桶是首选的处理方法。
处理未使用和过期药品的知识和实践水平需要提高。教育干预可能有助于进一步提高认识。制作一份总结常见药品处理程序的图表很重要。需要在其他地区开展类似的研究。
