Condições de armazenamento e descarte de medicamentos em domicílios na zona rural do interior da Paraíba.

Abstract

Storing medicines at home is a very common practice in everyday life, and concerns about inadequate storage conditions arise, as poorly packaged medicines can become ineffective or have serious consequences for the user's health if taken incorrectly. Therefore, the objective of the work was to collect data on how medicines are stored and disposed of in homes in the Bujari community, Cuité-PB, in addition to promoting guidelines aimed at user safety. This is an exploratory, cross-sectional descriptive study, whose sample was composed of 28 residents of the rural community Sítio Bujarí, rural area of the municipality of Cuité-PB. The data collection period took place between August and September 2023, using a structured questionnaire as a resource. The research was submitted and approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Federal University of Campina Grande, with opinion number 6,149,789. It was observed that all houses had medicines, with a total of 136 medicines being counted, and that these were preferably stored in the kitchen (67,8%). Among the drugs most found in homes, 39,0% were for the treatment of pathologies related to the nervous system. In 28,5% of homes, the home pharmacy was within reach of children, 59,5% of the medicines did not have a leaflet present, 44,4% were obtained by self-prescription. 50,0% reported purchasing their medicines from private pharmacies and 82,1% said they periodically checked the expiration date, which is why 97,7% of the medicines were valid. In relation to disposal, 67,8% said they discarded it in general waste and 78,5% stated that they had never received information about the storage and disposal of medicines. Therefore, the role of the pharmacist as an agent of health promotion and education and the importance of research such as this topic is clear, seeking to promote rationality in the use of medicines, causing positive impacts on the environment and the population's quality of life.