assessment risk factors for unintentional childhood poisoning: a case-control study in tehran

background and objective: recently, childhood poisoning has become one of the most pressing concerns in injury epidemiology. the aim of this study is to identify the main risk factors in unintentional childhood poisoning. materials and methods: the present study is individual method case-control based in a hospital (case; n=140, control; n=280) in tehran 1392. cases with controls are matched on sex and age. then children's parents are interviewed to determine demographic, behavior, previous poisoning, addiction and mental disease in the family, accessibility of poisoning products, and household size, using semi-structured interview by standard questionnaire. finally invariable-multi adjusted conditional logistic regression models were constructed. results: narcotic poisoning was of highest prevalence among the cases (58.6%). the majority of the poisonings occurred at home (96.4%). the invariable model showed that maternal occupation, parent education, smoker parent, previous poisoning, addiction and mental disease in the family, accessibility of poisoning products, and household size all related to unintentional childhood poisoning. finally, the multi-adjusted model in stepwise manner showed that addiction in the family (or=14.6, p 140.001), previous poisoning (or=7, p 14 0.001), maternal occupation (or=4, p=0.016), and accessibility of poisoning products (or=0.03, p 14 0.001) associated with outcome. conclusion: addiction in the family as risk factor and inability to access poisoning products had the most association with unintentional childhood poisoning. it is recommended that public health planning focus on these two factors. references 1- lamireau t, llanas, b, kennedy, a, fayon, m, penouil, francoise, favarell-garrigues, jc, demarquez, jl. epidemiology of poisoning in children: a 7-year survey in a paediatric emergency care unit. european journal of emergency medicine. 2002;9(1):9-14. 2- taft c, paul h, consunji r, miller t. childhood unintentional injury worldwide: meeting the challenge. washington, dc: safe kids worldwide 2002. 3- fernando r, fernando dn. childhood poisoning in sri lanka. the indian journal of pediatrics. 1997;64(4):457-60. 4- motlagh m, nazari z. epidemiologic study of pediatric poisoning in amir kabir and abozar hospital of ahvaz in the year 2000. scientific journal of forensic medicine. 2002;8(27):39-42. 5- balai-mood m. pattern of acute poisonings in mashhad, iran 1993-2000. clin toxicol. 2004;42(7):965-75. 6- rice dp, mackenzie ej, jones a, kaufman s, delissovoy g, max w, et al. cost of injury in the united states: a report to congress. san francisco: institute for health and aging, university of california; injury prevention center, johns hopkins university, 1989. 7- lall s, al-wahaibi s, al-riyami m, al-kharusi k. profile of acute poisoning cases presenting to health centres and hospitals in oman. east mediterr health j. 2003;9(5-6):944-54. 8- farnaghi f, jafari n, mehregan f-f. methadone poisoning among children referred to loghman-hakim hospital in 2009. pajoohandeh journal. 2012;16(6):299-303. 9- gibson jc, vulliamy a. accidental methadone poisoning in children: a call for canadian research action. child abuse & neglect. 2010;34(8):553-4. 10- bilal a, zafar f, amna rs. population attributable risk of unintentional childhood poisoning in karachi pakistan. injury prevention. 2012;18(suppl 1):a114-a. 11- petridou e, kouri n, polychronopoulou a, siafas k, stoikidou m, trichopoulos d. risk factors for childhood poisoning: a case-control study in greece. injury prevention. 1996;2(3):208-11. 12- soori h. developmental of risk factors for unintentional childhood poisoning. saudi medical journal. 2001;22(3):227-30. 13- ramos clj, barros hmt, stein at, costa jsdd. risk factors contributing to childhood poisoning. jornal de pediatria. 2010;86(5):435-40. 14- cpsc requires child-resistant packaging for common household products containing hydrocarbons, including some baby oils. us consumer product safety commission. 2008; available from: (http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml02/02015. html. 15- flanagan r, rooney c, griffiths c. fatal poisoning in childhood, england & wales 1968–2000. forensic science international. 2005;148(2):121-9. 16- azizi b, zulkifli h, kasim m. risk factors for accidental poisoning in urban malaysian children. annals of tropical paediatrics. 1993;13(2):183. 17- reed rp, conradie fm. the epidemiology and clinical features of paraffin (kerosene) poisoning in rural african children. annals of tropical paediatrics. 1997;17(1):49-55. 18- wezorek c, dean b, krenzelok e. accidental childhood poisoning: influence of the type of caretaker on etiology and risk. veterinary and human toxicology. 1988;30(6):574. 19- matteucci mj, hannum je, riffenburgh rh, clark rf. pediatric sex group differences in location of snakebite injuries requiring antivenom therapy. journal of medical toxicology. 2007;3(3):103-6.