Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Safe Disposal of Unused and Expired Pharmaceutical Products among Pharmacy Students

Pharmaceuticals are produced and consumed in greater quantities every year. Unfortunately, not all medicines given to patients are used up; significant amounts are left unused or expired. The accumulation of medications in the home and the improper Disposal of unused medications can result in inappropriate medication sharing, unintentional childhood poisonings, and the diversion of medicines for illegal use.

Aims: To evaluate the knowledge, attitude and practice on safe Disposal of unused and expired pharmaceutical products among pharmacy students, and to assess the most common categories of drug products that are kept unused at home, the reasons for stocking up and the most preferred ways to dispose of them.

Study Design: A Descriptive Cross-sectional study.

Place and Duration of Study: Pharmacy students during the period of March 2022 to August 2022.

Methodology: We included 402 students (209 male, 193 females; age range 18-25 years) from different pharmacy departments (D. Pharm, B, Pharm and Pharm. D). Data were collected using a pre-structured questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS version 20 software. Descriptive statistics including frequencies, mean, standard deviation and percentages were used to summarize the data.

Results: A total of 402 pharmacy students participated in the study. Among the study participants, approximately 81% of the respondents had leftover medicines at home and the most common types of medicines kept in households were NSAIDS (29.89%) followed by antibiotics (24.06%). The most preferred ways of disposing of both unused and expired medicines among the study population were throwing them away in household garbage (55.5%) and disposing of them in their original package and dosage form (22.60%).

Conclusion: The majority of the students were aware of the adverse effects of unsafe Disposal of leftover medicines and they mentioned the need for schemes like drug takeback programs to encourage safe Disposal. Though respondents had good knowledge, the right attitude toward and practice of safe Disposal of medicines were lacking.