Publication

Abstract : The healthcare sector is a major contributor to carbon emissions, majorly attributed to the upstream production, use, and disposal of pharmaceutical products and medical devices. Medicine wastage due to irrational consumption practices is a growing concern that is challenging sustainable development. In this study, we attempt to incorporate the concept of anti-consumption into the context of sustainable consumption of pharmaceutical products. The study identifies the relationship between five enabling factors (Personal health literacy, Regulative policy measures, Sustainability consciousness, Social Marketing, and Pharmaceutical packaging and labeling) of sustainability-oriented anti-consumption using the novel Modified Total Interpretive Structural Modelling (M-TISM) and Matrix of Cross Impact Multiplications Applied to Classification (MICMAC) techniques. Expert opinions were collected to understand the contextual relationship between the enabling factors. The results suggest that regulative policy measures are a key enabler of sustainability-oriented anti-consumption of pharmaceutical products. Policymakers, health system actors, and other practitioners can derive implications from the current study to design and deliver interventions that enable sustainable consumption of pharmaceutical products.