Mortality and morbidity of poisonings in the Nordic countries in 2002

To map and compare mortality and morbidity of poisonings in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden in 2002 and to establish a common understanding of methods and procedures among the National Poisons Information Centres (NPIC) in order to create a Nordic toxico-epidemiological platform.

Morbidity was for this study defined as acute poisonings treated in hospitals given the ICD-10 codes T36-T65 and F10-F19. The figures were extracted from the National Patient/Hospital Registers. Acute poisonings listed as main as well as side diagnoses were included. Deaths recorded as acute poisoning (using the same ICD-10 codes) were collected from the National Death Cause Registers.

Annual mortality of acute poisonings per 100,000 inhabitants (rate) was 16.6 in Finland and between 8.6 and 11.1 in the other Nordic countries. Morbidity rates varied between 150 and 255 per 100,000 inhabitants.

The death rate due to acute poisoning was 50% higher in Finland compared to the rate in the other Nordic countries. The variable data between countries obtained for morbidity of acute poisonings need further elucidations to verify if the differences are real and not only due to heterogeneous procedures and practice for data collection and recording.