Atitudes de usuários de medicamentos do Sistema Único de Saúde, estudantes de farmácia e farmacêuticos frente ao armazenamento e descarte de medicamentos

Abstract

The unnecessary accumulation of unused medicines generates large quantities of expired products to be discarded, which may represent an environmental and human health hazard. This study was an analysis of how medicines are disposed of by professionals responsible for pharmacies and drugstores and how the storage and disposal of medicines is carried out by pharmacy students and a sample population of users of the public health system (SUS – Sistema Unico de Saude). Structured interview forms were given to the users of SUS, questionnaires to students from three different periods of the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences of UNIFAL-MG and questionnaires to pharmacists or other professionals responsible for commercial establishments during the period of April to June, 2012. It was found that 56% of the students disposed of the medicines in the household trash, similarly to SUS users, 57% of whom did the same. The storage profile also demonstrated a similarity between the SUS users and the students, 40.4% of SUS users storing their medications in a locked cupboard, while 43.7% of the students interviewed did the same. About 85% of professionals responsible for establishments stated that the practice of returning medicines was nonexistent. There was no great difference in terms of knowledge about the proper way to dispose of medicines, between students and the population; both had less information about disposal than storage and therefore practiced it inappropriately. It was also noted that pharmacies and drugstores were not the preferred final destination of medicines acquired by the population.