Drug storage at home in the community assisted by the Family Health Programme in Ibiá, MG, Brazil

Abstract

The objective of this study was to examine the stock of drugs in the community that is assisted by Programa Saúde da Família (PSF - Family Health Programme) in the city of Ibiá, state of Minas Gerais. The purpose was to describe users' characteristics, storage conditions, therapeutic classes and pharmaceutical forms, the origin of the drugs, as well as the cost of the drugs provided by the Public Health System. A total number of 285 households were visited from July to September 2004. It was verified that the average number of drugs per household was 8.4 and that 93.5% of the surveyed families had at least one sort of drug in stock. The most stored drugs were: analgesics (11.15%), diuretics (6.42%), antibacterials for systemic use (5.82%), anti-inflamatory drugs (5.08%) and antacids (4.10%). Although there is a considerable number of drugs stored in the households, the number of drugs without prescription coming from the Public Health System was small. This is a good consequence of the Pharmaceutical Assistance services in the municipality. On the other hand, it was prescription (self-medication). In addition, 18.5% of the drugs were no longer valid for use. Part of the drug storage at home results from prescriptions in amounts that are higher than what is necessary for treatment (20.0%), from non-completion of the prescribed treatment (17.0%) and from acquisition of drugs for self-medication (9.0%).The study suggests the need to educate users in relation to drugs utilization and storage, and the need to systematize data records in order to manage the resources more efficiently, which will lead to adequate decisions related to the Pharmaceutical Assistance policy.