Prevalence and risk factors of inadequate medicine home storage: a community-based study

Abstract

OBJECTIVE Assess the extent of inadequate home storage of medicines andidentify important risk factors.METHODS A cross-sectional survey based on a probability sample in the community, conducted in 267 households in Cuité, State of Paraíba, Northeast Brazil, in 2014. Logistic regression was used to study the risk factors.RESULTS The prevalence of households with inadequate storage was 76.0%. Problems with storage include direct exposure to sunlight in 10.9% of households, the presence of dust in 23.6%, and storage within reach of children in 76.0%. Medications no longer used are usually disposed of into the environment in 92.1% of households. Inadequate storage is more likely when home organization of medications is the responsibility of a male subject (OR = 1.729) or an older person (OR = 1.029), when out of date medicines are found (OR = 2.963), and in households with no children (OR = 2.088).CONCLUSIONS Physicians and pharmacists should advise patients on how to adequately store medicines at home, especially when the person in charge of medications is a male or an older adult, and if there are no children in the household.

Stocks of paracetamol products stored in urban New Zealand households: A cross-sectional study

“…Our study found that 24% of households had expired paracetamol products. This is a lower rate than the two-thirds of households found in a recent Belgian study [44], and higher than PLOS ONE the 2.4% found in a Brazilian study [45]. Initiatives such as 'Disposal of Unwanted Medication Properly (DUMP)' previously done in New Zealand [46] or 'Return Unwanted Medicines (RUM)' in Australia [35] where people had an easy, simple means of returning unnecessary medicines to the pharmacy could assist in reducing such expired stock being accumulated in households.…”

Medicine Storage, Wastage and Associated Determinants Among Urban Households: A Systematic Review of Household Surveys

“…Notwithstanding the higher rate of in-home storage among women [19,58], the lower wastage rate was linked to households whose stored medicines were organized by female subjects [15]. Other studies have con rmed high storage rates among women [15,95,96] with some reasons such as; gender-related physiopathology, lifestyle, contact to the health system and other biological differences such as pregnancy [96,97]. However other variations such as; women's tendency to excessive purchase and self-medication, lacks medical reasoning and can potentially be the focal point for improvement [98].…”

“…Of the 22 studies, six [15,55,57,[65][66][67] addressed the disposal practice among households. The most commonly used method of medicine disposal was throwing them in the garbage.…”

“…The most commonly used method of medicine disposal was throwing them in the garbage. According to the results of studies in Serbia [55,66,67], Nigeria [57], India [65], and Brazil [15], more than 80% of the households disposed of their medicines in the garbage. While medicine take-back program has globally known as a gold standard practice and has been conducted by many developed countries [70][71][72][73][74] but according to our results, the rate of households who adhering the take-back programs was reported from 0 [57,65] to 8% [15] (Fig.…”

“…Seventy-ve percent of unintentional poisonings in the United States have occurred due to improper storage of drugs at home [13]. Storage medicine in unsuitable places also triggers medicine wastage which imposes an economic burden on households, the health sector and the society [14][15][16]. According to Siler et al,40% of prescription drugs in the United States never actually used instead are either expired or thrown away [17].…”