assessment of knowledge and practice regarding disposal of unused and expired drugs in medical professionals in a tertiary care teaching hospital in eastern india: a cross- sectional, questionnaire-based study

Background: despite the effect of drugs on human body getting wide attention worldwide the effect of disposed drugs on the environment is largely neglected. since the doctors working in a teaching hospital are the major stakeholder in ensuring proper and safe disposal of drugs their knowledge, attitude and practice regarding drug disposal was assessed in this study.methods: a pre-validated questionnaire was given to the doctors working in a tertiary care teaching hospital through google form from 1st june,2023 to 31st july 2023. their responses were recorded in a microsoft excel form and analyzed.results: it was observed that while buying medicines 87.5% of physicians check the date of expiry but only 78.9% do that while receiving physician’s sample from the medical representatives. among the participants in this study 97.2% declared that medicines remain unused in their homes. in case of unused drugs, 45.8% donate them to patients or hospitals, and 29.2% throw them away with household garbage whereas in case of expired medicines majority (56.9%) throw them away. among the participants 38.9% had never instructed their patients about the proper disposal methods.conclusion: to ensure proper drug disposal programs should be initiated to increase awareness about the danger of improper drug disposal not only in general population but in medical community also.