Poisoning-related visits to emergency departments in the United States, 1993-1996

Citation
Lf. Mccaig et Cw. Burt, Poisoning-related visits to emergency departments in the United States, 1993-1996, J TOX-CLIN, 37(7), 1999, pp. 817-826
Citations number
22
Language
INGLESE
art.tipo
Article
Categorie Soggetti
Pharmacology,"Pharmacology & Toxicology
Journal title
JOURNAL OF TOXICOLOGY-CLINICAL TOXICOLOGY
ISSN journal
0731-3810 → ACNP
Volume
37
Issue
7
Year of publication
1999
Pages
817 - 826
Database
ISI
SICI code
0731-3810(1999)37:7<817:PVTEDI>2.0.ZU;2-R
Abstract
Background: Poisoning continues to be an important public health problem in the US. In 1995, 2 million human poison exposures were reported to all poi son centers in the US. Hospital emergency department data may be used to ex amine the most critical nonfatal poisoning exposures. Methods: Data from th e 1993-1996 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, which is a na tional probability sample survey of visits to emergency departments of nonF ederal, short-stay, and general hospitals, were examined to describe poison ing-related emergency department visits in the US. Results: During 1993-199 6, the average annual number of emergency department visits was 93 million, of which 37 million were injury related and 1 million were poisoning relat ed. Children under 5 years of age had a significantly higher average annual rate of poisoning-related visits (84 visits per 10,000 persons) than perso ns 5-19 years of age and persons 35 years of age and over. "Poisoning by ot her and unspecified drugs and medicinal substances" was the leading diagnos is and was recorded at 21% of all poisoning-related visits. Poisoning-relat ed visits were more often recorded as urgent (75%) and were more likely to result in hospital admission (22%) compared to illness visits (45% and 17%, respectively) and nonpoisoning-related injury visits (47% and 6%, respecti vely). Conclusions: Poisoning-related injury visits comprise a small (1%), but important component of the health care provided in emergency department s. An examination of different definitions of poisoning revealed that for e mergency department data, it is most appropriate to use the poisoning E-cod es from the injury data framework developed by the injury control community . Data from emergency departments are needed to monitor any changing patter ns of nonfatal poisonings and to provide guidance for effective poison prev ention programs.