Martins et al reported findings associated with inadequate home storage of medicines. They identified a number of risk factors for inadequate drug storage. The authors are from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte and Universidade Federal de Campina Grande in Brazil.
Inadequate medicine storage includes:
(1) exposure to sunlight
(2) exposure to a temperature that is either too high or too low
(3) contamination by dust or debris (from cooking, etc)
(4) storage within reach of children
(5) failure to discard drugs after the expiration date
Risk factors for inadequate home storage of medicines:
(1) person responsible for medicine organization is male (OR 1.7)
(2) person responsible for medicine organization is older (OR 1.029 per year)
(3) presence of medicines that have expired (out-of-date, OR 3.0)
(4) no children in household (OR 2.1)
Problems may also arise from:
(1) multiple storage locations
(2) accumulation of prescriptions for the same medication
(3) storage in an unlabeled secondary container
(4) lack of instruction about how to handle and dispose of medications
(5) cognitive impairment (dementia, substance abuse)
