EVALUATION OF DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS AND FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH POISONING IN CHILDREN ATTENDING THE KOODAKAN HOSPITAL OF BANDAR ABBAS

Abstract

Abstract

Background: Poisoning is a major public health problem and is still one of the most common causes of hospitalization and treatment of patients in emergency wards. Poisoning in children is also one of the most important concerns of societies that mostly occurs incidental. 

Objective: The goal of this study was to identify the demographic characteristics and factors associated with poisoning in children.

Methods: In this retrospective cross-sectional descriptive-analytic study, all files on patients diagnosed with poisoning, and hospitalized from the start of 2006 to the end of 2011 were reviewed. The required data were extracted from the collected information according to the designed checklists (which were extracted confidentially and without the use of their names or family name after approval from Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences), and were used to complete them. Each checklist was specified with its own special code. Finally, IBM SPSS statistics software 22, descriptive statistical tests (means, standard deviations, frequencies), and analytic statistical tests such as Chi-square and independent samples T-test were used to analyze the data. 

Results: The hospitalized children consisted of 272 (44.6%) girls and 338 (55.4%) boys with the average age of 37.7±30.05 months. In 517 (85.6%) of the cases, poisoning was accidental, 95.2% of the patients (577 cases) had no history of poisoning, and 84.8% (518 patients) had never been outpatients before their hospitalization nor had they received any healthcare. The average interval between occurrence of poisoning and transfer to hospital was 4.76±4.36 hours. The most common clinical symptom in these patients (57.1%) was low level of consciousness, the mean length of hospitalization was 2.09±1.32 days, and there were 7 (1.1%) cases of death. The most common cause of poisoning (54.1%) was drugs, and the majority of poisoning cases (29.7%) happened in autumn. There were no differences between the genders except in the number of poisoning cases in various seasons (p=0.02).

Conclusion: Poisoning is one of the common causes of children going to the Children’s Hospital in Bandar Abbas and being hospitalized there. Considering the high number of accidental poisoning cases, the need for greater knowledge of parents regarding prevention of poisoning is increasingly felt.