Knowledge, Attitude and Disposing Practice of Unused and Expired Medicines in the General Public of Hawassa City, Ethiopia

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to assess knowledge, awareness and practice of disposing of unused medicines in the community of Hawassa city, Ethiopia

METHODS: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted among 363 households of Hawassa city. A systematic sampling technique was applied to select each household in the study setting. The ethical committee approved the study and a written consent was obtained from each participant prior to data collection.

RESULTS: Out of 363 respondents, majority were women 229 (63.1%) while about 155 (42.7%) were between 25 to 35years old. On assessing the knowledge score, about 54.5% of study participants had good knowledge concerning the disposal of unused and expired pharmaceuticals. Seventy percent of the respondents have a positive attitude towards disposal of unused and expired pharmaceuticals. Nearly 56.2% of respondents reported that they kept unused and/or expired medicines at their home. The most preferred disposal practice was flushing into toilet 175 (48.2%) and followed by throw away in household garbage 127 (35%).

CONCLUSIONS: More than half of study participants had good knowledge and nearly 2/3 of them had positive attitude towards the disposal of unused and expired pharmaceuticals. In contrarily none of them had awareness about proper disposal practices.