Knowledge, attitude and practice of community pharmacists towards household pharmaceutical waste disposal
Bee Yean Low, Kang‐Nee Ting, Mei-Kee Lee
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of community pharmacists (CP) towards household pharmaceutical waste disposal. METHODS: All pharmacists attending the Malaysian Community Pharmacy Guild event held in-person were invited to self-administer a web-based survey. KEY FINDINGS: The response rate was 61% (168/276). Overall, community pharmacists have mixed knowledge (mean ± SD: 5.89 ± 1.38) and positive attitude (mean ± SD: 9.58 ± 0.81) towards household pharmaceutical waste disposal. However, few community pharmacists (18/168, 10.7%) have promotional materials encouraging safe medication disposal in their pharmacies. CONCLUSIONS: Community pharmacists do not proactively promote safe household pharmaceutical waste disposal to mitigate pharmaceutical pollutants entering the environment although they have satisfactory knowledge and attitude.