Determination of rational drug use, health literacy, and household pharmaceutical waste awareness level of individuals with chronic disease

The increasing world population and the prolongation of the average life expectancy have led to an increase in the rates of chronic diseases and related drug use. There is a significant relationship between the rational drug use (RDU) knowledge and behaviors of health literacy (HL) and the rates of possession of unused drugs at home and disposal routes. The aim of this study is to determine the RDU, HL and household pharmaceutical waste awareness level of chronic patients. This study was conducted with 478 outpatients with at least one chronic disease who applied to a state hospital between October 2022 and May 2023. "Socio-Demographic Information Form", "Turkey Health Literacy Scale-32 (TSOY-32)", "RDU Scale" and "Household Pharmaceutical Waste Management Awareness Form" were used to collect data. The data obtained from the study were evaluated with the SPSS 22.0 package program. Descriptive statistics of the variables are presented with frequency tables, mean and percentage values. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the data between two independent groups, and the Kruskal-Wallis H test was used to compare the data between more than two groups. The mean age of the participants was 65.01±12.89, and 62.3% were male and 60.5% were married. It was determined that the majority of the patients had Hypertension/Heart Disease (75.1%). The majority of the patients stated that they heard the concept of RDU (74.1%), but did not hear the concept of HL (55.0%). Most of the patients have excessive drug storage behavior at home, and all of the participants stated that they throw away unused drugs into the sink. Participants' TSOY-32 scale mean score was 27.95±8.80; The mean score of the RDU scale is 55.94±6.76. A statistically significant relationship was found between gender, marital status and sociodemographic characteristics other than the place of residence and the mean scores of the TSOY-32 scale (p<0.05). It was determined that there was no statistically significant relationship between the patients' mean RDU scale scores and sociodemographic characteristics, RDU and some characteristics related to HL (p˃0.05). In addition, it was determined that there was a positive and strong correlation between TSOY-32 scale total scores and RDU scale total scores (r=0.78; p=0.000). In our study, it was determined that the participants' awareness of household pharmaceutical waste, HL and RDU levels were below the expected levels. It has been suggested to carry out studies that will increase the awareness of the society on the subject and to develop legal legislation on household pharmaceutical waste management.