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Disposal practices of unused and expired pharmaceuticals among general public in Kabul

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Public Health, January 2017
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Title
Disposal practices of unused and expired pharmaceuticals among general public in Kabul
Published in
BMC Public Health, January 2017
DOI 10.1186/s12889-016-3975-z
Pubmed ID
Authors

Mohammad Bashaar, Vijay Thawani, Mohamed Azmi Hassali, Fahad Saleem

Abstract

Most of the medicine users remain unaware about the disposal of unused or expired medicines. The aim of this study was to know the disposal practices of unused and expired medicines among the general public in Kabul. This was a descriptive, cross-sectional survey, conducted through face-to-face interviews using prevalidated structured questionnaire. Returned questionnaires were double-checked for accuracy. Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 23 was used for statistical analysis. Total of 301 valid questionnaires were returned with a response rate of 100% in which 73.4% men and 26.6% women participated. More than half of the respondents were university graduates. Interestingly, 83.4% of the interviewees purchased medicines on the prescription of which 47.2% were university graduates, while 14.6% purchased medicine over the counter. Among the respondents, 46.5/100 purchased antibiotics and the remaining purchased NSAIDs, anti-hypertensive and anti-diabetic medicines. Significantly, 97/100 checked the expiry date of medicine before buying. Majority (95.3%) of the respondents' stored medicines at home. 77.7% of the respondents discarded the expired medicines in household trash. Majority of respondents held government responsible for creation of awareness for proper medicine disposal. Almost entire sample (98%) felt that improper disposal of unused and expired medicines can affect the environment and health. Gaps exist in practices, therefore robust, safe and cost-effective pharmaceutical waste management program supported with media campaign is needed. Healthcare practitioners and community pharmacists should offer training to educate customers on standard medicine disposal practices.

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X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profile of 1 X user who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 411 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 411 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Bachelor 63 15%
Student > Master 62 15%
Student > Ph. D. Student 28 7%
Researcher 25 6%
Lecturer 22 5%
Other 50 12%
Unknown 161 39%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science 90 22%
Medicine and Dentistry 35 9%
Environmental Science 18 4%
Nursing and Health Professions 17 4%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 12 3%
Other 58 14%
Unknown 181 44%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 05 September 2020.
All research outputs
#15,448,169
of 22,957,478 outputs
Outputs from BMC Public Health
#11,415
of 14,958 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#257,106
of 421,125 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Public Health
#169
of 217 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 22,957,478 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 22nd percentile – i.e., 22% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 14,958 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 13.9. This one is in the 16th percentile – i.e., 16% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 421,125 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one is in the 30th percentile – i.e., 30% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
We're also able to compare this research output to 217 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 17th percentile – i.e., 17% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.