Caracterização dos medicamentos descartados por usuários de unidades básicas de saúde em Marabá/PA

Abstract

The increase in the commercialization of medicines has been alarming, either by population growth or by the ease of acquisition through social media and, along with this, there is also growing concern about the environmental impacts resulting from these advances. Therefore, the aim of this study is to characterize the profile of expired or unused medications discarded by users of two health units in the city of Marabá/PA. Thus, we sought to perform a descriptive analysis of samples of expired or unused medications discarded by users of health units in the city of Marabá after the performance of an extension project to promote health education actions in these places. And from the methodology of Design Thinking (DT) it was created two devices for collecting medicines / primary and secondary packaging. In this way, the drugs collected in the UBS's during the period of one month were classified according to name, type of drug and therapeutic class, route of administration, pharmaceutical form, type of stripe, expiration date, and free sample. As a result, 3 kg of waste were collected, corresponding to 666 items, including 354 medicines in primary packaging, 21 empty primary packaging (blisters and syrup glass), 145 boxes and 146 package inserts. Regarding the expiration date, 346 (97.7%) of the drugs were expired, 3 (0.8%) were within the expiration date, and 5 (1.4%) could not identify the expiration date. Regarding free samples, 2 (0.6%) discarded units were accounted for. And most of the drugs discarded by users were prescription-only drugs without prescription retention 324 (91.5%) or over-the-counter drugs 27 (7.6%). The most common pharmaceutical forms were solids, with 312 (88.1%) tablets and 35 (9.9%) capsules. Liquid forms ranked second, with 6 (1.7%) of the items discarded. The route of administration was the oral route, with 348. And as for the therapeutic class, in first place are the antimuscarinics with a total of 258 (72.9%) of the units. And regarding the name and type of drug, Enablex prevailed in first position throughout the study with 258 units, being the reference drug. Based on the results obtained through this research, carried out through the pilot project of distribution of collection devices, it proves that the implementation is possible and that more people can be reached and made aware in order to intervene in the disposal of these potentially toxic substances in regular trash, in the toilet bowl, in the sink, and in nature. We conclude that it is necessary to implement the device in all health units of the municipality, besides encouraging initiatives to promote the proper disposal of expired or unused medications, contributing to change habits that contribute to the irrational use of medicines by the population.