Poisonings during the COVID-19 pandemic: attention to Children and adolescent admitted to the Referral Teaching Hospitals of Yazd and Taft Cities

Background: With the onset of the first wave of COVID-19 in Iran and the general quarantine, children who had to stay at home found themselves in contact with drugs, alcohol, and disinfectants. We aimed to compare the prevalence rates of poisoning for children and adolescents hospitalized during the first wave of COVID-19 versus the previous year (2019; “pre-COVID-19”). Methods: This analytic, cross-sectional study was conducted based on administrative data obtained from the referral teaching hospital in Yazd and Taft cities. This study was conducted on children under age 15 admitted to Hospital due to poisoning. The study period was February 19, 2020, until February 18, 2021, (12 months of the COVID-19pandemic) compared to the 2019 reference period (pre-COVID-19). The data were analyzed by SPSS version 20.0. Results: Multivariate regression analysis showed that by adjusting the effects of age and sex, the chance of alcohol poisoning (OR=0.3, P=0.03), poisoning with oil and its derivatives (OR=0.33, P=0.05) and drugs-opioids poisoning in the period before the outbreak of covid-19 was lower than during the outbreak of covid-19. Also, the chance of poisoning with medications in the period before the outbreak of covid-19 was 67% higher than during the outbreak of covid-19. (OR=1.67, P=0.01). Conclusion: The results indicated a significant increase in poisoning with alcohol, drugs-opioids, oil, and its derivatives in children and adolescents in Yazd during the 12 months of the COVID-19 pandemic.