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Objectives: A cross-sectional survey was conducted to evaluate the knowledge, awareness and practice among the lay public regarding storage and disposal of unused and expired medicines. Materials and Methods: This was an observational, cross-sectional, single-centre and questionnaire-based survey. After obtaining Institutional Ethics Committee approval, the study was conducted using a pre-validated structured questionnaire distributed among the lay public visiting a tertiary care hospital located in an urban metropolitan city. Results: Four hundred of 720 individuals visiting the tertiary care hospital participated in the survey. The results revealed that 75% had never referred to any sources to get the correct information about the proper and safe disposal of medicines and had no knowledge regarding the same. About 12.75% of study participants reported that they were educated regarding the disposal of medicines by their treating physicians (RR: 0.71 [95% CI: 0.51–0.99]) when compared with the other sources of information (18%) with statistically significant contribution made by the physicians (p<0.05). About 67% of the public stored their medicines at room temperature. Majority (83.75%) of the study participants reported that they disposed unused and expired drugs in the dustbin. Only 42.5% of the public knew the detrimental effect of improper drug disposal on human health and our ecosystem. In addition, 80% (320/400) of the participants confirmed that, given the option, they would prefer to return the unused or expired drugs to the pharmacy shops from where the medicines were purchased. Conclusion: There is a need to educate drug consumers/general public about safe and proper disposal of unused/ expired medicines. Health-care professionals, governments and policymakers should offer training to educate the general public about Indian regulations for safe disposal of unused/expired medicines.
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OBJECTIVE： To provide reference for reducing the harm of expired drugs to public health， improving the technical level of drug recovery， and realizing the green recycling economy of drugs. METHODS： The literatures analysis and field investigation is conducted to analyze the development status and the main problems in the construction of the reverse supply chain of expired drugs. According to the technical characteristics of block chain， the feasibility of building the reverse supply chain of expired drugs is analyzed. In order to verify the feasibility of the application of block chain technology in the construction of the expired drug reverse supply chain， this paper attempts to build the expired drug reverse supply chain from the perspective of block chain， and uses the system dynamics method to build a simulation model for each participant in the drug reverse supply chain and its operationing efficiency. RESULTS & CONCLUSIONS： The reverse supply chain of expired drugs constructed by the block chain technology could effectively solve the main problems of the reverse supply chain of expired drugs in China， such as many levels of participants， high logistics cost， low level of information. The simulation results showed when using block chain technology， the recovery efficiency and recovery quantity of each participant in the supply chain were significantly increased. The recovery efficiency of consumers and retailers increased from 20％ to 83％， and those of distributors and manufacturers increased from 40％ and 50％ to 83％， respectively. The recovery quantity of each participant also increased significantly with the increase of recovery efficiency. In the actual construction of the reverse supply chain of expired drugs， the enterprises involved in the drug supply chain should be taken as the leading role， and the multi-party participation of government agencies， industry platforms and consumers should be emphasized. Drug supply chain participating enterprises should use block chain technology to strengthen information communication between enterprises， establish an efficient information platform， and promote and guide consumers to actively participate in the construction of the reverse supply chain of expired drugs. The government should give full play to the guiding role of policy and strengthen the policy guarantee； the industry platform should learn from international advanced cases to form industry standards for the recovery process of expired drugs； consumers should fully understand the hazards of expired drugs and actively participate in the recovery of expired drugs.
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Background: Increasing disease incidence and prevalence necessitate healthcare practitioners to prescribe diverse medications. Families and patients are in possession of unused or expired medications and its risks have started gaining notice across the world. Majority of them including medical students are unaware about the disposal of unused or expired medicines. Misuse and improper disposal of unused/expired medications is a major safety and environmental concern, and thus proper disposal of those medications is highly important.Methods: Questionnaire based study was conducted among medical undergraduates of third year MBBS in two tertiary care teaching hospitals of Uttar Pradesh after approval from Institutional Ethical Committees during July-August 2018.Results: There were 65% of respondent had unused drugs in their home while 30% had the expired drugs. The most common reason for the unused and expiry drugs in the home was self-discontinuation. Analgesics were the main group of drugs possessed by participants. 67% in this study responded that drug disposal method was disposing the expired drugs to garbage. Only 26% know about the area in the city where unused/expired drugs are collected. 46% think that proper education of the community is required for appropriate disposal of unused drugs.Conclusions: Intervention by education about prudent drug disposal techniques that are also environmentally safe and acceptable is the need of time to change their behavior. There is also needing to understand the practice and awareness of the public to make any such education by program a success.
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OBJECTIVE:To provide reference to the construct recycling and disposal system for expired drugs of Chongqing families. METHODS:Questionnaire survey was conducted among 1 683 residents from 6 districts of Chongqing,involving whether or not to reserve and regularly check up the drugs in the home;how to dispose expired drugs;reasons for different disposal behavior;suggestions of drug recycling. Epidata 3.1 software was used for data entry and statistical analysis,and corresponding measures and suggestions were put forward. RESULTS:A total of 1 579 effective questionnaires were collected with effective recovery rate of 93.82%. 1 322 residents(83.72%)had the habit of storing drug;1 213 residents(91.75%)disposed expired drugs at random;109 interviewees had participated in expired drug recycling. Inquiries survey showed that 75 residents (68.81%)were not satisfied with the current way of expired drug recycling;90 residents(82.57%)suggested increasing recycling points;101 residents(92.66%)suggested setting recycling points near;93 residents(85.33%)suggested recovering expired drug to the doorstep;97 residents(88.99%)expected compensable drug recovery;1 062 residents who disposed expired drugs with the garbage had strong willingness to participate in drug recovery,and accepted different recycling methods well. CONCLUSIONS:Many residents have the habit of storing drugs,but they lack the consciousness of actively checking up the drugs. The residents deal with the expired drugs in the family casually,and lack the professional knowledge of expired drugs and environmental awareness. The residents who have been involved in recycling are not satisfied with the existing methods of recycling,and they lack of enthusiasm and initiative. The residents support professional expired drug recycling,but the actual behavior is affected by many factors. It is suggested to improve the relevant laws and regulations for the recycling and professional disposal of the expired drugs as soon as possible,construct government-leading,enterprise-participating and multi-lateral cooperative professional family expired drug recycling and disposal system.
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OBJECTIVE: To explore the resource and solution of the expired drugs in citizen family through investigating its constituents and expired time.METHODS: By a random sampling,the records of the reclaimed drugs of a total of 1 000 cases collected from 6 drugstores were analyzed statistically.RESULTS: The main expired drugs reclaimed from citizen family were cardiovascular and cerebral vessels drugs,drugs for respiratory disease,and reinforcing and regulating drugs,and most of which were overdue 50 months ago.CONCLUSIONS: The situation of expired drugs in citizen family is serious,thus measures such as reclaiming expired drugs and popularizing knowledge about taking drugs should be taken to tackle the problem of expired drugs.