A Status Survey on Family-owned Drug Storage of Rural Residents among Model Well-off Township Hospital in Eastern,Central and Western China

Objective To understand the situation of commonly-used drugs,medical device and their storages in rural households among model well-off township hospitals in eastern,central and western China,and to provide the basis for the guidance of reasonably using and scientifically storing drugs.Methods The methods of combining simple ran-dom sampling and cluster sampling were used to investigate and analyze the situation of commonly-used drugs,medical device and their storages in 162 households from three well-off township hospitals in Shanghai,Zhejiang,and Sichuan provinces,respectively.Results The storage rates of commonly-used drugs of rural households in well-off towns were cold medicine(72.2%),wound paste(51.9%),cooling oil(39.5%),Thessential balm(36.4%),antihypertensive(27.8%),iodine tincture(14.2%),anti-diabetic drugs(13.0%) and other drugs(17.3%).The storage rates of medical devices were ther-mometer(50.0%),cotton swab(47.5%),sphygmomanometer(9.3%),injector(1.2%) and other devices(22.2%).A total of 66% of respondent families stored drugs and medical devices in a fixed drawer.Only 3.1% families stored drugs and medi-cal devices in the special portable medical kit.Conclusion Rural families have a higher rate of household drugs among model well-off township hospitals in eastern,central and western China,and most drugs are OTC drugs.The storage rates of medical devices are not high.Many rural family-owned medical devices are linked with special chronic diseases in the family.A lot of rural families place drugs and medical devices randomly.There are many security risks,and it may affect the rational utilization of drugs.