Prevalence and factors associated with unused medicine in chronic disease

Abstract

Objective : to study the prevalence, the causes, and the factors that affect chronic disease patients who return their unused medicine to physicians.

Method : The research design was a cross-sectional study. A questionnaire was used to interview chronic disease patients who came to primary health care centers for services in the District of Mueang Lampang. A sample of 362 people was purposively sampled between 1 and 14 October 2018. The data was analyzed in the form of numbers and percentages. The factors related to the return of unused medicine to physicians were analyzed by the Chi-square test.

Result : The prevalence of patients with chronic diseases who returned unused medicine to the hospital is 41.7%. And unused medicine brought to the physicians by patients who were notified by the medical personnel was significantly higher than in those who were not notified by the medical personnel, at 50.2% and 17.2%, respectively (P-value<0.05). The most common reasons for unused medicines to be returned to physicians are that the physicians ordered them to be returned (71.5%) and intended to be returned, being conscious that they are state property (8.6%).

Conclusion : In order to encourage patients to bring unused medicine to the hospital, there should be systematic measures to alert them to bring the unused medicine to the hospital. In addition, there should be more knowledge about unused medicine in patients with chronic diseases.