Acute Poisoning Among Children Admitted to Alexandria Poison Center, Egypt: Patterns and Predisposing Factors

Acute poisoning in children is a major public health problem worldwide. Children poisoning ranks among the top unintentional injuries in children aged less than four years. This paper aimed to describe the pattern and characteristics of acute poisoning incidents, estimate the percentage of medication poisoning among those children and highlight the possible risk factors. All children aged below 10 years admitted to Alexandria Poison Centre (APC) with acute poisoning from the July 1, 2022, to December 31, 2022, were included in the study. A pre-designed structured interviewing questionnaire was used to collect data: socio-demographic data of the poisoned child and his/her caregiver, medical history of the poisoned child and family members, history of previous poisoning incidents in the family, details of the poisoning incident including causative agent, route of poisoning, scene of poisoning, time interval to reach APC and the first aid done.  350 children admitted to APC were included in our study, of which 59% (n=208) of poisoned children were males with mean age 3.14 ± 2.28 years. The types of poisoning found were 46.6% chemical compounds, 31.4% medication, 18% household and 4% food poisoning. Most of the children were poisoned orally. High education of caregiver, urban residence and the presence of chronic disease within a family member were significantly associated with medication poisoning while low education of caregiver, drug addiction, having chronic disease among a family member and the presence of previous poisoning accident in the family were significantly associated with poisoning with chemical compounds. The study found that acute poisoning is more common among young male children in Alexandria; the chemical compounds came first as the main source of poisoning followed by the medication poisoning.