Understanding factors that contribute to the disposal of unused opioid medication
Summary/Excerpts
There is a clear need to increase patient awareness about the importance and methods of proper medication disposal, and a great opportunity for health care providers to increase patient education efforts. These study findings also highlight key areas for improvement in drug take-back programs that may promote and incentivize more patients to utilize the services.
Key Statistics
Only one-third of patients disposed of their unused opioid medication
Education about the importance of and appropriate methods for drug disposal was associated with a significantly increased likelihood of patients disposing of unused medication
... the most impactful drivers of unused opioid disposal were routine practice of disposing of all unused drugs and instruction from a health care provider ...
Citation
Buffington DE, Lozicki A, Alfieri T, Bond TC. Understanding factors that contribute to the disposal of unused opioid medication. J Pain Res. 2019;12:725-732
https://doi.org/10.2147/JPR.S171742