Objective: To test the effectiveness of a simple educational intervention to encourage households to return unwanted medicines via a municipal collection program and to investigate the most common sources and types of unwanted medicines in the home.
Setting: Households in Kuwait City, Kuwait.
Method: A convenience sample of 200 households in Kuwait received an educational letter and special plastic bags in which to place unwanted medicines to be collected by the municipality. They also completed a short self-administered questionnaire on medicine disposal habits. A second convenience sample of an additional 14 households in Kuwait received the same educational letter together with a face-to-face interview and assistance in collecting unwanted medicines. Returned medicines were categorized and their source and expiry dates noted.
Main outcome measure: Quantity and types of medicines returned.
Results: No medicines were collected from the 200 households participating in the municipal collection scheme in spite of 45% of respondents agreeing that this was an appropriate method of disposal. 97% of the respondents said they currently disposed of their medication in the garbage. The second intervention yielded 123 medicines from 14 homes, a third of which were for the respiratory system (38% of these were cough and cold preparations). The majority of returned medications were for acute conditions, almost all were from government health centers and 52% were expired.
Conclusion: Simple collection of unwanted medicines by municipal authorities is unlikely to be effective. A multifaceted approach is more effective but resource intensive. Using local pharmacies as collection points in a reverse distribution system may be more cost-effective.