ArticlePloS one2026
Addressing the disposal of unused and expired medications in Saudi households: Time to bridge the regulatory gaps.
Article in PloS one, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionThis study aimed to investigate the awareness, and practice towards disposal of unused, leftover, and expired medications among the residents of Qassim, Saudi Arabia. MATERIALS AND
methodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted among 877 residents through an online-based questionnaire Participants have to be adults aged 18 years or older of either gender, psychologically stable, able to provide informed consent and understand the Arabic language otherwise, were excluded. A pre-validated, structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Data was analyzed using R software. For all analyses, p < 0.05 was considered significant.
resultsMost of the [70%] respondents had unused medications, [62%] reported to store their unused medications in the refrigerator followed by bedroom cabinet [36%]. The majority [88%] dispose of unused medicines by throwing away in the household dustbins. The vast majority throw away near expiry [73%], and expired medicines [92%], in the household dustbins. Majority [86%] of the participants denied receiving formal education/awareness regarding safe medications disposal where [60%] agrees that the responsible sector for educating the public about safe medications disposal should be pharmacies. A significant but weak association [p < 0.05; φc = 0.1], between the storage of unused medicines at home and demographic factors such as age, marital status, education, and income was found.
conclusionsIn conclusion our study highlighted the concern that study respondents frequently store medications in refrigerator [62%] and discard unused and expired medications improperly in the dustbin [88%]. Study results call upon concerned authorities to raise awareness and provide regulatory guidelines for the safe disposal of medications by the residents.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.