Pengetahuan dan Ketepatan Apoteker dalam Pemusnahan Obat Sisa, Obat Rusak dan Obat Kedaluarsa

Abstract

Abstract Background: Improper drug disposal could cause environmental damage and clinical harm to the community. Pharmacists are expected to have appropriate knowledge in performing drug disposal and be able to give counselling about drug disposal to the patients to minimize the harmful effect. Objective: This study aimed to determine the correlation between Malang Raya pharmacists’ knowledge and appropriate disposal of unused, damaged, and expired drugs. Methods: This study was an observational analytic study with a cross-sectional design. The subjects were 106 pharmacists who worked in Malang Raya Pharmacies and were selected by using convenience sampling. The instruments used were questionnaires to measure the level of knowledge and correct drug disposal that had been tested for validity and reliability. The correlation test used in this study was the Rank Spearman test. Results: Based on the results from 106 respondents, 59% of respondents had “good” knowledge, and 10% of respondents had a “proper” level of disposing of unused, damaged and expired drugs. The Rank Spearman correlation test showed that the correlation between both was not significant (p = 0.522). Conclusion: Though many respondents had good knowledge of drug disposal, most of them did not do it properly. Therefore, it can be concluded that there was no significant correlation between pharmacists’ knowledge and appropriate disposal of unused, damaged, and expired drugs. Keywords: knowledge, appropriateness, pharmacist, disposal drugs