Citation

Straton JA, Rimmer MH, Cheng WS, Armstrong BK. Community Health Stud. 1981; 5(3): 269-274.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1981, University of Adelaide, Department of Community Medicine)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A survey of the medicines stored in 102 randomly selected households revealed a total of 1,181 medicines, with a range of 0-67 medicines per household. The number of medicines per household was positively correlated with household size, and households with children tended to have more medicines than childless households. The most commonly occurring medicines were skin preparations and analgesics. The median storage time was 3-6 months, and only 40 percent of the medicines were said to be in current use. Twenty-seven percent of the medicines found were available on prescription only, and these medicines had been stored for less time and were more likely to be in current use than other medicines. The kitchen was the most popular place for storage of medicines (42 percent) followed by the bathroom (36 percent); only 5 percent of all medicines were kept in a locked cupboard. Issues raised by these findings include the need for safe storage and safe disposal of medicines, the question of adherence to prescription instructions, and the appropriateness of the use of both prescribed and non-prescribed medicines.