Compliance With Disposal Of Expired And Unused Medicines Regulations Among Retail Pharmacies And Over The Counter Medicine Sellers In Ho Municipality

Abstract

Background: Globally, the consumption of pharmaceutical products is on the rise due to population increase and the use of medicines to maintain human health. These prescribed medicines are frequently left unused for variety of reasons and disposed of in an indiscriminate manner. This practice causes many environmental problems which leads to health hazards in adults and children. Objective: The objective of the study was to assess the level of compliance with FDA and international guidelines for the disposal of expired and unused medicines and associated factors among retail pharmacies and OTCM sellers in the Ho Municipality. Methods: An analytic cross sectional study design was used to survey all retail pharmacies and OTCM shops in the Ho Municipality. One hundred and sixteen (116) retail pharmacies and OTCM sellers were enrolled into the study after consenting. Semi-structured questionnaires were use to elicit information from respondents. These included demographic information, knowledge on disposal of expired medicines guidelines and the disposal practices. EpiData 6.0 software was used for data entry and exported to Stata version 16.0 for analysis. For categorical variables, simple frequencies and percentages were used, with statistical significance set at a P value of 0.05 at a confidence level of 95%. Results: The overall high knowledge level on disposal of expired and unused medicines was 63.79%. Compliance to FDA and international guidelines for the disposal of expired and unused medicines was 57.76%. Significant factors associated with disposal practices among respondents were tertiary level of education [AOR= 2.95, p=0.017], pharmacies [AOR= 3.24, p= 0.0038] and good knowledge level on disposal of unsafe medicines [AOR= 2.66, p=0.034]. Respondents who have ever disposed unsafe and unused medicines were 65% times less likely to have good disposal practice (p=0.025). Conclusion: Despite having a high level of knowledge on how to dispose of expired and unused medicines, one out of every two respondents did not follow FDA and international guidelines for disposing of expired and unused medicines. There is the need for stakeholders to intensify education and promote cost-effective strategies in disposing expired and unused medicines.