The frequency of children's poisonings in different social groups

1 Social stress has been emphasised as one of the major aetiologic factors in childhood poisonings. The clinical records of 188 children treated for acute poisoning in Helsinki during a six month period in 1980 were investigated. 2 The ratios of the observed number of poisonings to the expected ones calculated on the basis of the social group distribution in Helsinki were as follows: (I) 1.9, (II) 0.7, (III) 0.8, and (IV) 1.2. With respect to the poisonings classified as severe, the corresponding ratios were 0.7, 0.6, 1.4 and 1.4. 3 There were more accidental and less serious poisonings in the highest social group than in the other social groups, and they were relatively more often caused by plants or tobacco. The delay from the poisoning to the treatment was the shortest among the children of the highest social group. The differences in poisoning incidence rates among various social groups could partly be explained by different patterns of health service utilization.