Knowledge, attitude and practice of community pharmacists towards household pharmaceutical waste disposal

Objective To assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of community pharmacists (CP) towards household pharmaceutical waste disposal. Methods All pharmacists attending the Malaysian Community Pharmacy Guild event held in-person were invited to self-administer a web-based survey. Key findings The response rate was 61% (168/276). Overall, community pharmacists have mixed knowledge (mean +/- SD: 5.89 +/- 1.38) and positive attitude (mean +/- SD: 9.58 +/- 0.81) towards household pharmaceutical waste disposal. However, few community pharmacists (18/168, 10.7%) have promotional materials encouraging safe medication disposal in their pharmacies. Conclusions Community pharmacists do not proactively promote safe household pharmaceutical waste disposal to mitigate pharmaceutical pollutants entering the environment although they have satisfactory knowledge and attitude.