Computational analysis of knowledge, risk perception, and disposal practice of unused and expired medication among Generation Z in three sub-Saharan African countries

Damilola A. Ibirogba; Ebsitu H. Abate; Muganyizi Bisheko; Abdullahi Salahudeen; Ibrahim Egyegini; Oluwagbemisola Olukogbe; Oluwatobi Esther Adelaja; Chibuzor Udoji; Oyepeju F. Abioye; Abdisa Tufa Bedada; Ayooluwa T. Akintola

doi:10.1186/s12982-026-01554-5

Computational analysis of knowledge, risk perception, and disposal practice of unused and expired medication among Generation Z in three sub-Saharan African countries

Damilola A. Ibirogba
, Ebsitu H. Abate
, Muganyizi Bisheko
, Abdullahi Salahudeen
, Ibrahim Egyegini
, Oluwagbemisola Olukogbe
, Oluwatobi Esther Adelaja
, Chibuzor Udoji
, Oyepeju F. Abioye
, Abdisa Tufa Bedada
, Ayooluwa T. Akintola

Centre for Discoveries in Life Sciences (DLS)

Addis Ababa University
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
Usmanu Danfodiyo University
Bauchi State University
University of Ibadan
Lagos State University Teaching Hospital
Redeemer Health Center
Allegheny Health Network
The ProcessDoctorGroup

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

Background: Knowledge, risk perception, and disposal practices (KPP) of Used and Expired Medicines (UEMs) among Generation Z (young persons) remain an under-researched field. This study aimed to investigate these to provide interventions backed up by solid evidence. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with young persons across three sub-Saharan African countries: Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Tanzania, receiving a structured questionnaire distributed on Google Forms. Computational statistics was carried out to explore sociodemographic characteristics and their association with KPP using SPSS version 24.0, while p-values < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: 575 young persons (Mean age = 22 ± 2.93 years) completed the survey. KPP scores were 75.7%, 59.3% and 28.7% respectively. Knowledge was highest in Nigeria (76.3%), followed by Ethiopia (75.0%), and Tanzania (68.8%). Risk perception was fair (46.9% − 60.1%), while disposal practice was poor in all countries (25%-35.7%), but poorest in Tanzania (25%). Knowledge was associated with risk perception and disposal practice (p = 0.01 and 0.03, respectively), but risk perception was not associated with disposal practice (p = 0.329). Residency was a predictor of risk perception; participants in tertiary institutions were four times [Odds Ratio (OR = 4.1; 95% CI, 2.1–7.9)] more knowledgeable than their secondary school counterparts. Conclusion: Having demonstrated high knowledge of what UEMs are, there still exists a disposal practice and risk perception gap in Generation Z. Addressing the predictors is crucial to effectively preventing the future health threat of pharmaceutical waste in these countries. Graphical Abstract:

Original language	English
Article number	441
Number of pages	16
Journal	Discover public health
Volume	23
Issue number	1
Early online date	31 Mar 2026
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1186/s12982-026-01554-5
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 31 Mar 2026

Bibliographical note

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material.
You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

Keywords

Pharmaceutical waste
Knowledge
Risk perception
Statistics
Computational analysis
Disposal practices

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Ibirogba, D. A., Abate, E. H., Bisheko, M., Salahudeen, A., Egyegini, I., Olukogbe, O., Adelaja, O. E., Udoji, C., Abioye, O. F., Bedada, A. T., & Akintola, A. T. (2026). Computational analysis of knowledge, risk perception, and disposal practice of unused and expired medication among Generation Z in three sub-Saharan African countries. Discover public health, 23(1), Article 441. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12982-026-01554-5

Ibirogba, DA, Abate, EH, Bisheko, M, Salahudeen, A, Egyegini, I, Olukogbe, O, Adelaja, OE, Udoji, C, Abioye, OF, Bedada, AT & Akintola, AT 2026, 'Computational analysis of knowledge, risk perception, and disposal practice of unused and expired medication among Generation Z in three sub-Saharan African countries', Discover public health, vol. 23, no. 1, 441. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12982-026-01554-5

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title = "Computational analysis of knowledge, risk perception, and disposal practice of unused and expired medication among Generation Z in three sub-Saharan African countries",

abstract = "Background: Knowledge, risk perception, and disposal practices (KPP) of Used and Expired Medicines (UEMs) among Generation Z (young persons) remain an under-researched field. This study aimed to investigate these to provide interventions backed up by solid evidence. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with young persons across three sub-Saharan African countries: Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Tanzania, receiving a structured questionnaire distributed on Google Forms. Computational statistics was carried out to explore sociodemographic characteristics and their association with KPP using SPSS version 24.0, while p-values < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: 575 young persons (Mean age = 22 ± 2.93 years) completed the survey. KPP scores were 75.7\%, 59.3\% and 28.7\% respectively. Knowledge was highest in Nigeria (76.3\%), followed by Ethiopia (75.0\%), and Tanzania (68.8\%). Risk perception was fair (46.9\% − 60.1\%), while disposal practice was poor in all countries (25\%-35.7\%), but poorest in Tanzania (25\%). Knowledge was associated with risk perception and disposal practice (p = 0.01 and 0.03, respectively), but risk perception was not associated with disposal practice (p = 0.329). Residency was a predictor of risk perception; participants in tertiary institutions were four times [Odds Ratio (OR = 4.1; 95\% CI, 2.1–7.9)] more knowledgeable than their secondary school counterparts. Conclusion: Having demonstrated high knowledge of what UEMs are, there still exists a disposal practice and risk perception gap in Generation Z. Addressing the predictors is crucial to effectively preventing the future health threat of pharmaceutical waste in these countries. Graphical Abstract:",

keywords = "Pharmaceutical waste, Knowledge, Risk perception, Statistics, Computational analysis, Disposal practices",

author = "Ibirogba, \{Damilola A.\} and Abate, \{Ebsitu H.\} and Muganyizi Bisheko and Abdullahi Salahudeen and Ibrahim Egyegini and Oluwagbemisola Olukogbe and Adelaja, \{Oluwatobi Esther\} and Chibuzor Udoji and Abioye, \{Oyepeju F.\} and Bedada, \{Abdisa Tufa\} and Akintola, \{Ayooluwa T.\}",

note = "This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article{\textquoteright}s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article{\textquoteright}s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.",

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doi = "10.1186/s12982-026-01554-5",

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T1 - Computational analysis of knowledge, risk perception, and disposal practice of unused and expired medication among Generation Z in three sub-Saharan African countries

AU - Ibirogba, Damilola A.

AU - Abate, Ebsitu H.

AU - Bisheko, Muganyizi

AU - Salahudeen, Abdullahi

AU - Egyegini, Ibrahim

AU - Olukogbe, Oluwagbemisola

AU - Adelaja, Oluwatobi Esther

AU - Udoji, Chibuzor

AU - Abioye, Oyepeju F.

AU - Bedada, Abdisa Tufa

AU - Akintola, Ayooluwa T.

N1 - This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

PY - 2026/3/31

Y1 - 2026/3/31

N2 - Background: Knowledge, risk perception, and disposal practices (KPP) of Used and Expired Medicines (UEMs) among Generation Z (young persons) remain an under-researched field. This study aimed to investigate these to provide interventions backed up by solid evidence. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with young persons across three sub-Saharan African countries: Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Tanzania, receiving a structured questionnaire distributed on Google Forms. Computational statistics was carried out to explore sociodemographic characteristics and their association with KPP using SPSS version 24.0, while p-values < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: 575 young persons (Mean age = 22 ± 2.93 years) completed the survey. KPP scores were 75.7%, 59.3% and 28.7% respectively. Knowledge was highest in Nigeria (76.3%), followed by Ethiopia (75.0%), and Tanzania (68.8%). Risk perception was fair (46.9% − 60.1%), while disposal practice was poor in all countries (25%-35.7%), but poorest in Tanzania (25%). Knowledge was associated with risk perception and disposal practice (p = 0.01 and 0.03, respectively), but risk perception was not associated with disposal practice (p = 0.329). Residency was a predictor of risk perception; participants in tertiary institutions were four times [Odds Ratio (OR = 4.1; 95% CI, 2.1–7.9)] more knowledgeable than their secondary school counterparts. Conclusion: Having demonstrated high knowledge of what UEMs are, there still exists a disposal practice and risk perception gap in Generation Z. Addressing the predictors is crucial to effectively preventing the future health threat of pharmaceutical waste in these countries. Graphical Abstract:

AB - Background: Knowledge, risk perception, and disposal practices (KPP) of Used and Expired Medicines (UEMs) among Generation Z (young persons) remain an under-researched field. This study aimed to investigate these to provide interventions backed up by solid evidence. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with young persons across three sub-Saharan African countries: Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Tanzania, receiving a structured questionnaire distributed on Google Forms. Computational statistics was carried out to explore sociodemographic characteristics and their association with KPP using SPSS version 24.0, while p-values < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: 575 young persons (Mean age = 22 ± 2.93 years) completed the survey. KPP scores were 75.7%, 59.3% and 28.7% respectively. Knowledge was highest in Nigeria (76.3%), followed by Ethiopia (75.0%), and Tanzania (68.8%). Risk perception was fair (46.9% − 60.1%), while disposal practice was poor in all countries (25%-35.7%), but poorest in Tanzania (25%). Knowledge was associated with risk perception and disposal practice (p = 0.01 and 0.03, respectively), but risk perception was not associated with disposal practice (p = 0.329). Residency was a predictor of risk perception; participants in tertiary institutions were four times [Odds Ratio (OR = 4.1; 95% CI, 2.1–7.9)] more knowledgeable than their secondary school counterparts. Conclusion: Having demonstrated high knowledge of what UEMs are, there still exists a disposal practice and risk perception gap in Generation Z. Addressing the predictors is crucial to effectively preventing the future health threat of pharmaceutical waste in these countries. Graphical Abstract:

KW - Pharmaceutical waste

KW - Knowledge

KW - Risk perception

KW - Statistics

KW - Computational analysis

KW - Disposal practices

U2 - 10.1186/s12982-026-01554-5

DO - 10.1186/s12982-026-01554-5

M3 - Article

SN - 3005-0774

VL - 23

JO - Discover public health

JF - Discover public health

IS - 1

M1 - 441

ER -

Computational analysis of knowledge, risk perception, and disposal practice of unused and expired medication among Generation Z in three sub-Saharan African countries

Abstract

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Keywords

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