Journal of Ardabil University of Medical Sciences (Apr 2014)
Epidemiological Study of Acute Poisoning in Children Referred to Bu-Ali Hospital of Ardabil, 2007-2011
Abstract
Background & Objectives : Poisoning is a common cause of hospital emergency visits in many countries. Incidence of poisoning is different based on cultural and economic characteristics. The aim of this study was to investigate the epidemiology of poisoning in pediatrics. Methods: This cross sectional study was performed on 336 patients under 13 years of age referring to Bu-Ali hospital during five years (2007-2011). Variables such as age, sex, residency place, hospitalized duration, cause of the poisoning, clinical signs, treatment and outcome were obtained by a checklist. Collected data analyzed by statistical methods in SPSS v16. Results : Among the subjects, 197 patients (58.6%) were male. The average age of the children was 4.1 years and the most common age range was 1 to 4 years with (210 patients, 62.5%). The mean duration of hospitalization of children was 1.7 day (SD= 0.2), 77.7 % of the children were living in the city and the summer was accounted as a common season in which the patients referred to the hospital (32.7 %). The most used materials were drugs with 60.71% and in 86.6% of patients the cause of poisoning was accidental. Conclusion : Results showed that the most common cause of poisoning among children are drugs and methadone was the most commonly abused substance. It requires that parents should be trained about keeping their children away from drugs somewhere.
