A Study on Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) towards Return and Disposal of Unused Medications (ReDiUM) Among General Public in Sibu: A Descriptive, Cross-Sectional Study

Introduction:   
There is growing concern on inappropriate disposal of unused medications and its consequences to environment and public health. Misconception among public on disposal of unused medications to environment due to convenience and lack of appropriate education is a matter of discussion in our study. This study was designed to determine Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) towards return and disposal of unused medications.  

Methodology:  
A cross sectional study was performed using validated questionnaire with 500 randomly selected individuals among public in Sibu including those participating in pharmacy-based events as well as patients attending Out-patient Clinics in Sibu Hospital. They were interviewed on KAP towards return and disposal of unused medications.  

Results:  
The mean knowledge score obtained from our study was 5.426. For knowledge part, 81.6% of participants knew that returning unused medications to pharmacy is a correct way.  However, 70.2% of participants wrongly answered for correct statement "Incineration as a way of drug disposal", probably because they had mistaken term of "incineration" as open burning. There is a statistically significant relationship between education level of subjects and knowledge with P=0.002. Nevertheless, no correlation among other socio-demographic data and knowledge of participants. Meanwhile, for attitude and practice, majority participants showed positive attitude and practice on return and disposal of unused medications.  

Conclusion:  
As there is a statistically significant relationship between education level and knowledge, therefore pharmacist plays a role in creating public awareness on safe medication disposal by highlighting importance of drug return and safe medication disposal methods.
 

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