Behind Closed Doors: Medication Storage and Disposal in the Home

BACKGROUND: More than half of all medications are inappropriately prescribed, dispensed, or sold and only 50% of patients take their medications correctly. Oftentimes, unwanted or expired medications are saved for later use, stored indefinitely, or disposed via the sink, toilet, or garbage. OBJECTIVE: To determine how residents in Cook County, Illinois, use, store, and dispose of their medications to assess the possible impact of these medications on health care and the environment. METHODS: Researchers at the University of Illinois conducted a survey of Cook County residents over a 13-week period. Residents were surveyed regarding their use, storage, and disposal of prescription and nonprescription medications. RESULTS: From 3954 telephone numbers generated through random-digit dialing, 445 telephone interviews were completed. Eighty-one and a half percent of respondents had prescription medications and 92.4% had nonprescription medications in their homes. On average, respondents possessed 4.4 distinct prescription and 5.5 distinct nonprescription medications. Despite possessing a number of medications, approximately 30% of respondents stated that they took no medication on a regular basis; 59% of respondents reported disposing medications in the household gar bage and 31% flushed them down the toilet or sink. Over 80% of respondents stated that they had never received information about proper medication disposal. Thirty-seven percent reported having leftover unexpired medications from a previous illness. Of these, 63% stopped taking their medications because they believed that they no longer needed them or because they felt better. Thirty-two percent of respondents expected to have leftover prescription medications within the next 6 months. CONCLUSIONS: Almost all respondents had excess and leftover medications in their homes. This may be a result of both overprescribing and poor medication adherence. In addition to the potential human health risk of nonadherence, disposal of excess medication raises concerns about their environmental impact and safety.