Epidemiology of childhood poisonings leading to hospitalization in the United States, 1979-1983.

Since 1979 unintentional childhood poisonings have accounted for about 75 deaths annually in the United States, and for each death thousands of ingestions are reported to poison control centers. Little is known about childhood ingestions that lead to hospitalization. To address this issue, we analyzed National Hospital Discharge Survey data from the National Center for Health Statistics for 1979-1983. For these years, an estimated 108,280 children from birth to 9 years of age were hospitalized because of unintentional poisonings. Overall, the annual rate for hospitalization because of childhood poisoning was 65.1 per 100,000 children aged 0-9 years. Hospitalization rates for poisoning were highest for children aged 1 and 2 years (216.2 and 184.3 per 100,000, respectively) and lowest for those aged 5-9 years (11.3 per 100,000). Rates for children less than 1 year old and for those 3-4 years old were moderate. Children of other races had higher hospitalization rates for poisoning than did white children (124.2 per 100,000 compared with 51.9 per 100,000). White male patients were hospitalized more frequently than white female patients, but this sex difference did not occur in children of other races. Rates were consistently highest for children in the Northeast and South and lowest for children in the West. From 1979 to 1983, the length of a hospital stay for childhood poisoning declined by 26 percent. Our results provide new information on childhood poisonings requiring hospitalization.