Environmental sustainability in asthma: reducing carbon footprint and medication wastage.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Asthma inhalers are significant contributors of greenhouse gas emissions. However, less is known about the potentially avoidable carbon footprint i.e. medication wastage and oversupply. We aimed to analyse dispensing patterns and carbon footprints of asthma inhalers, quantify medication wastage, and identify determinants of medication oversupply.

Methods

We reviewed the asthma-related dispensation records from 2015 to 2019, in an anonymised, cluster-wide repository linking electronic medical, pharmacy and administrative records, containing patient and visit details on demographics, comorbidities, GINA step, and site of care. Medication wastage, a visit-level measure, was defined as the number of inhalers dispensed in excess of the quantity required during each r

SUBMITTER: Toh MR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12482071 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature