A Study evaluating medication use practices and extent of drug wastage among female students at Universiti Sains Malaysia

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Date
2008-09
Authors
Eltayeb Ali Babiker, Sohair
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Abstract
Medication wastage is a major burden on the health care system in Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). It is not only aggravates the financial cost to the health system but also contributes to increased health risk. Thus, appropriate medication use and prescribing is needed to decrease costs and the attendant risks. The wide availability of medicines and their easy accessibility in all USM related clinics coupled with the prevalence of inappropriate attitudes and behaviours by consumers (e.g. self-medication) may contribute to the increased risk of drug wastage. This study seeks to quantify drug wastage in USM and to identify the factors that lead to such wastage. The study involved a cross-sectional survey of the USM female students' community. The survey was conducted from February to June 2005 at the USM ~ main campus. A total of 535 respondents were targeted for a questionnairebased survey on randomly sampled female students. Data was analyzed using the Social Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) & Excel software. The mean±SD of age of single female and married postgraduate f~male students were 22.1 ±3.3 and 35.4±5.8, respectively. All female students reported having at least 2 medicines unused in their rooms. Overall, the mean±SD number of medicines per a single female student and per a postgraduate student' family were 3.6±2.8 and 4.0±3.5' respectively. The most common therapeutic classes of medications kept with both groups of students were vitamins & minerals (24.8%), GIT drugs (17.3%) and analgesic & antipyretics (17.0%) with single female students and were vitamins & minerals (21.6%), analgesic & antipyretics (18.1%) and GIT drugs (14.6%) with married postgraduate female students, respectively. The total number and percentage (%) of partially used, totally unused or expired drug products among single female students were 1435 (83.2%), 249 (14.5%) and 40 (2.3%), respectively while they were 139 (69.8%), 59 (29.7%) and 1 (0.5%) among married postgraduate female students, respectively. Based on these data, total medication wastage was estimated to be (1724 drugs) and (199 drugs) among the two groups of students, respectively. When analyzed on the basis of total medication cost, medication wastage was 47.41% and 63.20% among the 2 groups, respectively. Generally, female students' behaviors and attitudes associated with drug wastage included medicines stored in improper conditions, different forms of self-medication practices like purchasing of OTC medicines, medicine discontinuation, repeated medication, and students sharing medicine with their friends. The study found that single female st~dents in the USM main campus kept a total of RM11 ,515.4 .~ worth of medication that were not consumed while married postgraduate female students kept a total of RM1 ,290.40 worth of unconsumed medication. The study proposes that education and awareness programs should be implemented among university students in order to reduce medication wastage and the risks associated with misuse of medications. Keywords: drug wastage, drug cost, OTC medicine, Social-behavior, selfmedication, survey, female students, main campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia.
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Drug wastage , Among female students , Medication use practices
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