Medication Disposal Practices, Awareness, and Medication Adherence Among Patients with Chronic Conditions:...

Area of Science:

• Pharmaceutical Management
• Environmental Health
• Public Health

Background:

• Medication disposal knowledge is vital for safe pharmaceutical management.
• Poor medication adherence can lead to medication accumulation and waste, posing environmental and public health risks.
• Proper disposal of unused medications is essential for mitigating these risks.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess medication disposal knowledge, policy awareness, and satisfaction among chronic disease patients.
• To evaluate medication adherence in this population.
• To examine differences in these outcomes across demographic and clinical subgroups.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional study of 273 chronic disease patients with long-term medication use in Taipei, Taiwan.
• Data collected via questionnaire on medication disposal knowledge, adherence, policy clarity, satisfaction, and socio-demographics.
• Statistical analyses included independent samples t-tests and Pearson correlation coefficients.

Main Results:

• Younger age and higher education correlated with better medication disposal knowledge.
• Higher medication adherence was observed in patients over 65, with lower education, living alone, or taking five or more medications.
• Awareness of disposal stations was linked to higher disposal knowledge, policy clarity, and satisfaction.

Conclusions:

• Medication disposal competency is key to reducing environmental harm, particularly for patients with poor adherence.
• Enhancing medication disposal knowledge and adherence is critical for medication safety and public health.
• Targeted interventions may be needed to improve disposal practices among specific patient subgroups.