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THERE WERE 7142 cases of accidental poisoning in children admitted to all Riyadh Governmental Hospitals during the five years period (1983-87). Household products were the most common poisoning agent, accounting for 59% of all cases. This was followed by drugs (39%), and plants (2%). Children aged one to two years were the most affected. The fatality rate was 0.1% . This study indicates that improved living conditions, proper storage of the drugs and chemicals as well as health education of parents will help in reducing the incidence of poisoning.

A study was carried out to determine the incidence of accidental poisoning in children admitted to Riyadh Governmental Hospitals during 1988. Drugs were the most common poisoning agent and accounted for 52% of all cases. Kerosene poisoning and ingestion of household cleansers accounted for 46% of the cases, and ingestion of plants represented 2% of cases. Most of the poisoning incidents occurred in children who were 1 to 2 years of age. Our findings indicate that improved living conditions, proper storage of drugs and chemicals, and health education of parents will help to reduce the incidence of poisoning. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 1990; 10(3): 276-279 Accidental poisoning represents a serious source of childhood morbidity and mortality throughout the world. [1][2][3] Various studies have shown a clear distinction in the pattern and extent of poisoning among children between developed and developing countries, and this reflects attitudinal and behavioral differences. [2][3][4] There are few reports on the epidemiology of accidental poisoning in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. M Abdulaziz Al-Sekait, Epidemiology of Accidental Poisoning of Children in 4-6Therefore, we conducted a prospective study to define the local pattern of childhood poisoning and to provide a basis for its prevention. Material and MethodsThe study was conducted from January through December 1988 on three days of a week in all children up to 12 years of age who were admitted to the following Riyadh hospitals: Children's Hospital, Armed Forces Hospital, King Khalid University Hospital, Security Forces Hospital, and National Guard Hospital. A special form was prepared to record the age and sex of the patient, type of poisoning, time of poisoning, source of poison, time before presentation at hospital, treatment, complication, final outcome, and duration of hospital stay. ResultsDuring the study period, there were 794 cases of poisoning in children and this constituted 4.9% of the total medical pediatric admissions. There was no seasonal variation in the incidence. Table 1 shows the age and sex distribution of the children. Ages ranged between 3 months and 12 years, with a peak at one year. Most cases (92%) occurred in children younger than five years. There were 422 males and 372 females (ratio, 1.1:1.0), which did not achieve statistical significance (P > 0.05) when analyzed with respect to age.

This study was done on a sample of the primary care centers in the Al-Baha region, Saudi Arabia to assess the opinions of the medical and paramedical staff regarding the capability and acceptability of providing antenatal and intrapartum care in the primary health care setting. The study showed that 96% of all the respondents supported the provision of antenatal care services in primary health care with 60% of them giving the reason that it is more convenient for pregnant women. 90% of the respondents wanted the antenatal care to be delivered through special clinics and the majority of them wanted to give a greater role to the midwives in antenatal care. Questioned about the intranatal care provision in the centers, 98% of all the respondents agreed to the utilization of primary health care in such service. A similar percentage of them claimed to have the ability to do deliveries in the centers with existing facilities. To avoid duplication of care and to best use of available resources, low risk pregnancies should be seen antenatally and delivered in the primary health care centers provided and quality of such care is kept under control.

The superficial description in biomedical journals of sampling methods used in epidemiological studies of the prevalence of some diseases can be attributed to shallow knowledge of basic sampling techniques. The population of interest in most community surveys is usually very large and resources and time available limited, so that researchers have little or no choice but to study a sample of the population. One of the basic principles of sampling is the avoidance of bias, guaranteed by taking a random sample. But the term 'random sample' has often been misinterpreted as synonymous with 'haphazard sample', taking a sample without a definite pattern. It is re-emphasised that a random sample is a probability sample that gives every unit in the population a known probability of being selected in the sample. The procedures for taking a random sample for a nationwide study in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are not easy because of the structure of the population, and therefore require more complex sampling methods like the stratified cluster sampling. It is also necessary in a stratified sample to calculate estimated persons affected by a condition for each selected subgroup of the population before obtaining the overall prevalence rate. A proper understanding and use of appropriate sampling techniques is most likely to result in the most desired representative sample, and guarantees that some underlying assumptions for inferential statistics will be satisfied.