Descarte de medicamentos: uma análise da prática de usuários de uma farmácia pública no noroeste do Rio Grande do Sul.

This study described practices of use and disposal of drugs among users of a Public Pharmacy in the northwest region of the State of Rio Grande do Sul. The determination was performed by means of a questionnaire and the sample consisted of 80 participants. The data showed that most of the interviewees (96.25%) had drugs in their homes and 65% reported practicing self-medication. The results also show that 38.75% of the participants discard the drugs in the domestic dry garbage. Regarding information on the appropriate forms of discarding, 52.5% already received some type of information, but 81.25% would like to receive more information on the subject. Therefore, it is observed that a large part of the studied population incorrectly discards medicines and still lacks information on the way of disposal, demonstrating a need for health education services in the public system studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]