Investigating the Status and Causes of Storing Surplus Household Medicines in Tehran
Abstract
Background: Surplus household medicines is a critical issue in public health. This study was investigated the status and reasons of the surplus household medicines in Tehran -Iran.
Methods: This cross-sectional and descriptive- analytical research was done in selected districts of Tehran. The questionnaire content validity was done by CVR and CVI indexes. The collected data were categorized using the ATC classification system. The sample size was 384 families, but 510 families were entered in research processes. Independent T tests and one-way ANOVA were used for data analysis.
Results: The selected districts had 1990000 populations. The response rate for questionnaire was 85.7% so, the 437 household were included in the final analysis. The 67.2 % of surplus medicine have valid date and safe appearance. The mean weight of excess drugs were 243.528 ± 36.361 grams. Over than 30% of excess medicines were kept at home. Based on Pearson correlation coefficient, the participants age and surplus medicine have negative correlation (-0.053). Increasing of the family dimension has no effect on weighted average of surplus medicine (p- value >0.05). Cabinet is the most common place to store surplus medication in studied households. The location of medication storage is somewhat consistent with the age of the participants. Education levels has not effects on surplus medication weight (p>0.05). Employment types in participants has significant effects on surplus medication amount(p<0.05) and the weighted mean of surplus medication is higher in government employees and retired & unemployed. Dispose of in household trash was the highest choice (86%).
Conclusions: Inappropriate storage of excess medicines can be dangerous in terms of public health. Inappropriate disposal can lead to emerging pollutants in environment. Due to economic value and elevation of public safety, management of surplus medication need for appropriate policy making with approaches to support the formulated policy
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