Evaluation of household medication use at Uselu area Edo State, Nigeria

The presence of medicines in the households is a risk factor for irrational drug use; which may expose patients to adverse effects and treatment failures. This study determined common chronic disease/s in the households, storage of medications and sources through which households obtained medications, knowledge of medication use and methods of handling their left-over and expired medicines. A descriptive, cross-sectional household survey was conducted. Questionnaires were used based on the methods contained in the WHO manual. Data on the extent of storage, sources of medicines and their current status among others were collected and were entered in to Excel. Of the 126 participants surveyed, 58 (46.03%) attained a tertiary education, 40 (31.75%) had member/s of the family working in a health sector. Only 38 (30.16%) of households had at least one person suffering from chronic disease/s, 25 (65.79%) were hypertensive, 73 (57.94%) of the study participants sometimes had left-over medication/s. forty eight (13.48%) of the medications were supplements, 215(61.08%) of the medicines were prescribed by a doctor, 156 (42.05%) of them were purchased from a pharmacy, 151(42.90%) of drugs were stored in a basket/carts, 344 (97.72%) of drugs were in good storage conditions, 332 (94.32%) had valid (present) expiration dates and 289 (82.10%) of the drugs did not have  correct duration. In this survey, hypertension, diabetes and arthritis were the most common chronic disease conditions. Most of the medicines were purchased from community pharmacies, methods of storage and disposal of medications were in basket/carts and in trash bins/ thrown away respectively. However, these medicines found were in good conditions, though, poorly labeled and participants had poor knowledge on how long to use their medications. Keywords: Household, irrational treatment, left-over medication/s, storage