Poisoning among children in Malaysia: A 10-years retrospective study

Abstract

Background Poisoning commonly occurs among children due to their curiosity, where they tend to explore and investigate their surroundings. They frequently put what they find into their mouths as they do not understand the danger and probably cannot read the warning label. As this issue has not been extensively studied in Malaysia; hence, a retrospective analysis of records was carried out to determine the profile of phone call enquiries regarding poisoning among children at the National Poison Centre (NPC). Methodology The records of all cases of poisoning among children below the age of 18 years were retrospectively reviewed over a period of 10 years from 2006 to 2015. The data on the cases were analysed according to age group and gender, the circumstances and the toxic agent implicated in the poisoning. Results During the 10-year study period, 13,583 calls that met the criteria for this study were referred to the NPC. Of these calls, 62.2% involved children between the age of 0 to 5 years, 9% were children aged between 6 to 12 years, and 28.8% were children between 13 to 18 years. Unintentional poisoning accounted for 96.7% of the incidents involving children between the age of 0 to 5 years, although among the children who were between the age of 13 to 18 years, 76% of the cases were intentional. In all the cases involving children, pharmaceutical agents were the most frequent source of the poisoning. More than 95% of the cases were exposed to poisoning through the oral route. Conclusion Poisoning in children between the age of 0 to 5 years was mainly unintentional, while poisoning in children between the age of 13 to 18 years was mainly intentional, where pharmaceutical and household agents were responsible for more than two-thirds of the poisoning cases. Most of these incidents could have been prevented if protective measures, such as child-resistant enclosures, had been implemented and if the parents and guardians had been educated about preventive measures, such as keeping poisoning agents out of the reach of children.

Acute Poisoning among Children Admitted in a Tertiary Care Hospital: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study

“…Among household products, cleaning agents and pesticides were the most common poisoning agents. This is a similar finding to previous studies done in Malaysia 16 and the United States, 17 which also reported cleaning liquids as the common household product in childhood poisoning. Studies from Nepal have reported prescription medication and OP poisoning as the most common agents.…”

“…The duration of hospital stay depends on the type and quantity of poison ingested and the severity of symptoms. The mean hospital stay time in various studies ranges from 0.66 16 , 18 to 17 days. 11 , 13 The mean time of stay in this study was 5.3 days.…”

Poisoning in children and adolescents in Kermanshah city, Iran

“…These factors together change the exploratory consumption leading to potential accidental poisoning into a common problem in this age group [ 29 ]. The higher prevalence in boys seems to be due to the nature of boys who are more active and adventurous than girls, however, the exact reason is unknown [ 4 , 17 ]. In some studies, the highest frequency of unintentional poisoning has been reported in the age group under 5 years [ 4 , 6 , 16 , 25 ] or 1–3 years [ 19 , 23 , 24 , 31 – 33 ].…”

“…considering the poisoning rate in the age group of 6–12 years from previous studies [ 4 ] as p = 82.5, type one error rate α = 0.05 ( Z = 1.96) and precision d = 0.05 resulted 221 samples. , by referring to the registers and using the multi-stage sampling method, 250 cases were selected from among the cases of poisoning during the years 2019–2022.…”

“…Poisoning has a significant impact on society in terms of health, economy, and culture [ 3 ]. Poisoning among children is a global public health problem and one of the leading causes of unintentional injuries in children [ 4 – 6 ]. It is also thought to be one of the main causes of disease in developing and developed countries.…”