Epidemiology of poisoning in admitted children to Imam Sajad hospital of Yasuj city in 2018-2019

ntroduction: Poisoning in children due to parental carelessness is common. Half of the cases of poisoning in children are unintentional and are the fourth leading cause of death in children. The most common cause of poisoning in children is chemicals and drugs and products that are consumed at home, which are available to children due to carelessness. 95% of poisonings in children if the type, amount, time interval of poisoning (What, When, How much) has improved with outpatient care and treatment and 5% of cases need care and hospitalization. The aim of this study was to investigate the epidemiology of poisoning in children admitted to Imam Sajjad Teaching Hospital in Yasouj in 2019-2020. Methods: This study is a descriptive study that was performed on 348 children hospitalized due to poisoning. Patients' information such as age, sex, cause of poisoning, place of residence and clinical symptoms of patients were entered in the questionnaires that were prepared for this purpose, then this information was extracted and frequency tables and statistical graphs were drawn. C 2 test was also used. Results: : In the present study, 348 children with poisoning were included in the study. 193 cases (55.5%) were boys and 155 cases (44.5%) were girls. The mean and standard deviation of children's age were 4.7 ± 3.95 years, the mean age was 3 years and the minimum and maximum ages were 1 and 15 years, respectively. Most fathers of children had a diploma or higher (67%) and most fathers had a self-employment job (73.3%). Most mothers of children had diploma and higher education (48.9%) and most housewives (91.4%). The most common way of poisoning was oral route(74.4%). Medicins were most common substances that used via oral route(55%), and the lowest oral consumption were cosmetic poisoning (0.38%). Most of the drugs used were in the category of neuropsychiatric drugs. The most toxic inhaler was carbon monoxide(7.2%). Out of 64 cases of poisoning caused by bites(18.4%), 28 cases were related to scorpion bites (43.75%) . Of the 24 cases, poisoning by inhaled toxic substance among these children was all related to carbon monoxide (7.2%). The most common cause of poisoning  was inadvertently consumed by the patient (82.24%). The most common cause of poisoning was in patients' homes. The most common cause of poisoning was oral (74.4%). The most common symptoms in children were less common and asymptomatic symptoms (54.6%).  Most (94.8%) children did not need to be admitted to the intensive care unit and no deaths occurred. In the referring children, the mean time between the onset of intoxication to the emergency department was 9.30 ± 4.6  hours, the median time was 1.5 hours, and the minimum and maximum time were 10 minutes and 48 hours, respectively. The mean length of hospital stay of children in pediatric ward was 2.05 ± 1.96 days and minimum and maximum were 1 and 20 days, respectively, and in intensive care unit was 2.77 ± 1.73 days and minimum and maximum were 1 and 7 days, respectively. Conclusion: According to this study, Due to the fact that young children are usually unable to diagnose the risk factors for poisoning. On the other hand, their curiosity causes the consumption of various substances, and also most of the poisonings are inadvertent and occur through the mouth. Therefore, educating families on the storage of various substances, including chemicals and drugs, can greatly prevent such accidents.