Insights Into Medicine Expiry Awareness Among the Population of Rural South India: A Mixed-Methods Approach.

Background: The practice of noticing the expiry date of medicines has improved in recent decades. But, still, there are various factors that hinder this practice and make people use medicines that are expired. This study was conducted to assess the knowledge of the expiry date of medicines among the rural population at Thiruvennainallur, in Tamil Nadu, India, and to explore the barriers that hinder the viewing of the expiry date of medicines among the rural population.

Methodology: The study involved both the quantitative phase and the qualitative phase. In the quantitative phase, consenting participants who were residing in the service areas of our Rural Health Training Center (RHTC) at Thiruvennainallur were recruited as study participants by systematic random sampling technique. For the qualitative phase, we conducted in-depth interviews with the study participants using the purposive sampling method.

Results: Out of 182 participants, the number of females (92, 50.5%) was more when compared to males. The majority of the participants were married (152, 85.7%). Around 84 (46.2%) of participants had completed secondary education, and 80 (44%) belonged to Class IV socioeconomic status. About 80.2% purchased medicine using a prescription. The majority of the participants had the awareness that manufactured medicines can be used only for a limited period of time (70.3%) and awareness that expired medicines can cause harm (155, 85.2%). Tablets (159, 87.4%) were the most common form of medicine used. The majority, around 63 (34.6%) of the respondents, considered illiteracy as a reason for not checking the expiration date of medicines.

Conclusion: Lack of knowledge regarding the expiry date of medicine and not considering it as necessary were the major reasons for not noticing the expiry date of medicine by the majority of the respondents. Creating awareness about the ill effects of expired medicines would improve the practice of noticing the expiry date of the medicine.