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

Abstract

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). 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%). 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. 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.