earticle

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OBJECTIVE To assess the extent of participation and attitude of community pharmacists for disposal of unused medicine and to identify the associated factors. METHODS An on-line based survey was conducted with community pharmacists who were members of a web café named as “Pharmacists’ Community for Future Pharmacy.” A total of 147 pharmacists participated in the survey on a voluntary basis between August 23 and September 3, 2016. RESULTS About 81% of the respondents had a collection box for disposal of unused medicine at the community pharmacy where they were working. Only one third posted the promotion poster about collecting unused medicine. The most common frequency of educating their patients about the disposal system of unused medicine were: when patients asked about (53.7%); and when pharmacists felt necessary to educate (29.3%). Among the responding pharmacists, 74%, 70%, and 67% knew the accurate method of disposing unused medicine for PTP tablets, capsules, and syrups, respectively. Only 47.6% answered correctly for the method of disposal for all of the three types of drugs. Logistic regression analysis results showed that those with a longer job experience as community pharmacists (< 5 years vs. ≥ 10 years, odds ratio=6.123) and with graduate-level education (odds ratio=3.682) tended to more actively participate in the disposal system of unused medicine. CONCLUSION To improve the effectiveness of the disposal system of unused medicine, it appears that more active participation in and better knowledge of the system by community pharmacists are necessary.