Medicosnext
An assessment of storage and disposal practices of unused and expired medicines among the communities in Kathmandu.
Words by Dr. Nisha Jha, Dr. Pathiyil Ravi Shankar
Safe and proper disposal of medicine is important as improper disposal may have a negative impact on human health and the environment. Unsafe disposal of medicine can especially affect children, the elderly, and pregnant women.
There is a lack of knowledge about the safe disposal practices of medicines among the population. Common methods of disposing of medicines are throwing in the garbage and pouring the liquids into the toilets. There is no program for safe disposal of medicines in Nepal. Even pharmacists are unaware of this issue in developing countries like ours, whereas there are good systems in developed countries like Australia, Canada, Sweden, and the United States.
Knowledge and attitude regarding unused and expired medicines among households in the Kathmandu valley were studied from April to October 2021. A total of 210 households were selected from Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, and Lalitpur. The data were collected by trained personnel from the heads of households using a questionnaire prepared by the medicine disposal guidelines from WHO and other agencies. The questionnaire was translated into Nepali for easy understanding by the participants.
More than half (52.4%) of the respondents were from Kathmandu district. Few participants (19%) were from Bhaktapur district, and 28.6% from Lalitpur district. Maximum participants (97.1%) had correct knowledge about the healthcare professional responsibilities for improving knowledge of proper disposal; 97% were also aware of the possible harmful effects due to inappropriate disposal of medicines. About 70% of participants mentioned that awareness and outreach programs should be started. The use of social media and the internet were also suggested by the participants.
The reasons listed by the participants for storing medicines at the house were-using them in case of emergencies among family members, friends, and relatives and for self-medication. Many of them were disposing of unused and expired medicines in the household garbage.
Participants knew about the expiry dates of medicines; however, they were unknown about the safe and proper disposal practices. Educational interventions like development and use of a chart for summarizing safe disposal practices can strengthen the knowledge of participants. A take-back system should be established for the medicines and it can be initially started with the pharmacies located in the urban communities with gradual expansion to rural areas. Information about this system should also be widely disseminated for proper awareness.
The study has been published in the journal PLoS One.
(Jha N, Kafle S, Bhandary S, Shankar PR (2022) Assessment of knowledge, attitude, and practice of disposing and storing unused and expired medicines among the communities of Kathmandu, Nepal. PLoS ONE 17(8): e0272635. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272635)
