Public knowledge and practices regarding the reuse and storage of leftover medications in the United Arab Emirates: a cross-sectional survey

@article{ibrahim2026public,
  title = {{Public knowledge and practices regarding the reuse and storage of leftover medications in the United Arab Emirates: a cross-sectional survey}},
  author = {Fatma Magdi Ibrahim and Eman Abdelaziz Ahmed Rashad Dabou and Mona Gamal Mohamed and Shaimaa Abdelsamad and Tarun Wadhwa and Israa Abuijlan},
  journal = {BMC Public Health},
  year = {2026},
  month = aug,
  doi = {10.1186/s12889-026-28128-z},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-026-28128-z},
  note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}

TY  - JOUR
TI  - Public knowledge and practices regarding the reuse and storage of leftover medications in the United Arab Emirates: a cross-sectional survey
AU  - Fatma Magdi Ibrahim
AU  - Eman Abdelaziz Ahmed Rashad Dabou
AU  - Mona Gamal Mohamed
AU  - Shaimaa Abdelsamad
AU  - Tarun Wadhwa
AU  - Israa Abuijlan
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/08/10
JO  - BMC Public Health
DO  - 10.1186/s12889-026-28128-z
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-026-28128-z
AB  - Background: Home storage and reuse of leftover medicines are common household practices that may compromise medication safety. In addition to the labelled expiry date for unopened products, many medicines have a shorter in-use period after first opening or reconstitution. For leftover antimicrobials, unsupervised reuse can also contribute to inappropriate antimicrobial use and antimicrobial resistance. This study assessed public knowledge, perceptions, and self-reported practices regarding the storage and reuse of leftover medications among adult residents in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).  Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional online survey was conducted among adult UAE residents across the seven emirates between September 2024 and March 2025. A researcher-developed questionnaire assessed sociodemographic characteristics, perceptions, medication-related knowledge, and self-reported practices. Knowledge items were scored as correct or incorrect. Practice items were reverse-coded where needed so that higher scores represented safer practices. Scores were converted to percentages and categorized a priori as good ( > = 75%), fair (50.1–74.9%), or poor ( < = 50%).  Results: A total of 395 participants completed the survey. The mean age was 34.9 years (SD = 10.9); most respondents were female (81.8%) and university educated (75.7%). More than half (58.7%) did not understand the meaning of medication shelf life or in-use period, although 92.9% perceived a need for greater public awareness. Poor knowledge and poor practice were identified in 79.0% and 78.5% of respondents, respectively. Medications were commonly stored at home, including medications currently in use (61.0%), new unused medicines (43.8%), and leftover drugs (43.3%). Reuse “just in case” was the most common reason for retaining leftovers (62.5%). Knowledge and practice scores were highly correlated (r = 0.939, p < 0.001), but this finding was interpreted cautiously because overlapping item content and common method variance may have inflated the association.  Conclusions: In this online convenience sample, knowledge and self-reported practices related to leftover medication storage and reuse were inadequate. Public education and dispensing counselling should explicitly distinguish labelled expiry dates from in-use periods after opening and should discourage unsupervised reuse or sharing of prescription medicines. The non-probability online sample and self-reported measures limit generalizability; therefore, findings should be interpreted as hypothesis-generating and should be confirmed using representative sampling and validated instruments.  Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-026-28128-z.
SN  - 1471-2458
ER  -