SACTRC, Faculty of Medicine, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.
Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.
BMC Public Health. 2018 Dec 6;18(1):1349. doi: 10.1186/s12889-018-6259-y.
Acute paediatric poisoning is a common public health concern for both developed and developing countries. The type of agent and underlying cause differ depending on the social, cultural, economic and educational background. The objectives of this study were to identify the incidence and pattern of paediatric poisoning in a rural district in Sri Lanka and establish whether tertiary referral hospital data are a useful surrogate for estimating district level epidemiology of paediatric poisoning.
A subset of epidemiological data were obtained from March 2011 to February 2013 from a randomized controlled trial (SLCTR/2010/008) conducted in 45 hospitals in Kurunegala district.
The age adjusted annual incidence of all cause of acute poisoning in children aged 1 to 12 years in the study area was 60.4 per 100,000. The incidence of poisoning of younger age group (1 to 6 years; 76 per 100,000) was significantly higher than older age group (7 to 12 years; 41 per 100,000) (p = 0.0001) in Kurunegala district. The annual incidence rate of paediatric admissions due to deliberate self-poisoning is 18 per 100,000 population. This study also established that admission data from primary hospitals provided the most accurate epidemiological information on paediatric poisoning.
In rural districts of Sri Lanka, acute paediatric poisoning cases were less frequent and less severe compared to adult poisoning cases (426-446 per 100,000 population). The incidence of poisoning was significantly higher among young children with compared to old children. In this study, deliberate self-poisoning among older children was more frequently seen than in other comparable countries. Because most of the admissions are directed to and managed by primary hospitals, data from referral hospitals alone cannot be used to represent the true incidence of acute poisoning within a district. The data set from all the primary hospitals (n = 44) yielded more accurate poisoning incidence amongst a paediatric population.
急性儿科中毒是发达国家和发展中国家共同面临的一个常见公共卫生问题。中毒的药物种类和根本原因因社会、文化、经济和教育背景而异。本研究的目的是确定斯里兰卡一个农村地区儿科中毒的发生率和模式，并确定三级转诊医院的数据是否可作为估计儿科中毒地区流行病学的有用替代方法。
从 2011 年 3 月至 2013 年 2 月，从在库伦加地区的 45 家医院进行的一项随机对照试验（SLCTR/2010/008）中获得了一部分流行病学数据。
研究区域 1 至 12 岁儿童所有原因急性中毒的年龄调整年发生率为每 10 万人 60.4 例。年龄较小的中毒组（1 至 6 岁；每 10 万人 76 例）的发生率明显高于年龄较大的中毒组（7 至 12 岁；每 10 万人 41 例）（p=0.0001）。由于故意自我中毒而住院的儿童的年发生率为每 10 万人 18 例。本研究还确定，来自初级医院的入院数据提供了关于儿科中毒的最准确的流行病学信息。
在斯里兰卡的农村地区，与成人中毒（每 10 万人 426-446 例）相比，儿科急性中毒的病例较少且较轻。与大孩子相比，幼儿中毒的发生率明显更高。在这项研究中，与其他可比国家相比，大龄儿童中故意自我中毒更为常见。由于大多数入院治疗和管理都是由初级医院负责，因此仅参考转诊医院的数据不能代表整个地区的急性中毒的真实发生率。从所有初级医院（n=44）获得的数据集中，儿科人群的中毒发生率更为准确。
