M Rajalakshmi, Datchanamourtty Priyanga, Vasigar Prathap
Community Medicine, Sri Manakula Vinayagar Medical College and Hospital, Puducherry, IND.
Orthopaedics, Indira Gandhi Government General Hospital and Post Graduate Institute, Puducherry, IND.
Cureus. 2024 Sep 27;16(9):e70314. doi: 10.7759/cureus.70314. eCollection 2024 Sep.
The practice of noticing the expiry date of medicines has improved in recent decades. But, still, there are various factors that hinder this practice and make people use medicines that are expired. This study was conducted to assess the knowledge of the expiry date of medicines among the rural population at Thiruvennainallur, in Tamil Nadu, India, and to explore the barriers that hinder the viewing of the expiry date of medicines among the rural population.
The study involved both the quantitative phase and the qualitative phase. In the quantitative phase, consenting participants who were residing in the service areas of our Rural Health Training Center (RHTC) at Thiruvennainallur were recruited as study participants by systematic random sampling technique. For the qualitative phase, we conducted in-depth interviews with the study participants using the purposive sampling method.
Out of 182 participants, the number of females (92, 50.5%) was more when compared to males. The majority of the participants were married (152, 85.7%). Around 84 (46.2%) of participants had completed secondary education, and 80 (44%) belonged to Class IV socioeconomic status. About 80.2% purchased medicine using a prescription. The majority of the participants had the awareness that manufactured medicines can be used only for a limited period of time (70.3%) and awareness that expired medicines can cause harm (155, 85.2%). Tablets (159, 87.4%) were the most common form of medicine used. The majority, around 63 (34.6%) of the respondents, considered illiteracy as a reason for not checking the expiration date of medicines.
Lack of knowledge regarding the expiry date of medicine and not considering it as necessary were the major reasons for not noticing the expiry date of medicine by the majority of the respondents. Creating awareness about the ill effects of expired medicines would improve the practice of noticing the expiry date of the medicine.
近几十年来，注意药品有效期的做法已有改进。但是，仍然存在各种因素阻碍这一做法，导致人们使用过期药品。本研究旨在评估印度泰米尔纳德邦蒂鲁韦纳伊纳勒尔农村人口对药品有效期的了解情况，并探讨阻碍农村人口查看药品有效期的障碍。
本研究包括定量阶段和定性阶段。在定量阶段，通过系统随机抽样技术，招募居住在我们位于蒂鲁韦纳伊纳勒尔的农村卫生培训中心（RHTC）服务区内的同意参与的参与者作为研究对象。在定性阶段，我们采用目的抽样法对研究参与者进行了深入访谈。
在182名参与者中，女性人数（92人，占50.5%）多于男性。大多数参与者已婚（152人，占85.7%）。约84名（46.2%）参与者完成了中等教育，80名（44%）属于社会经济地位第四等级。约80.2%的人凭处方购药。大多数参与者意识到药品生产后只能在有限时间内使用（70.3%），并且意识到过期药品可能有害（155人，占85.2%）。片剂（159种，占87.4%）是最常用的药品形式。大多数受访者，约63名（34.6%），认为文盲是不查看药品有效期的一个原因。
大多数受访者不注意药品有效期的主要原因是对药品有效期缺乏了解且认为没有必要查看。提高对过期药品不良影响的认识将有助于改善注意药品有效期的做法。
