Poisoning among children in Malaysia: A 10-years retrospective study.

BACKGROUND: Poisoning commonly occurs among children due to their curiosity, where they tend to explore and investigate their surroundings. They frequently put what they find into their mouths as they do not understand the danger and probably cannot read the warning label. As this issue has not been extensively studied in Malaysia; hence, a retrospective analysis of records was carried out to determine the profile of phone call enquiries regarding poisoning among children at the National Poison Centre (NPC). METHODOLOGY: The records of all cases of poisoning among children below the age of 18 years were retrospectively reviewed over a period of 10 years from 2006 to 2015. The data on the cases were analysed according to age group and gender, the circumstances and the toxic agent implicated in the poisoning. RESULTS: During the 10-year study period, 13,583 calls that met the criteria for this study were referred to the NPC. Of these calls, 62.2% involved children between the age of 0 to 5 years, 9% were children aged between 6 to 12 years, and 28.8% were children between 13 to 18 years. Unintentional poisoning accounted for 96.7% of the incidents involving children between the age of 0 to 5 years, although among the children who were between the age of 13 to 18 years, 76% of the cases were intentional. In all the cases involving children, pharmaceutical agents were the most frequent source of the poisoning. More than 95% of the cases were exposed to poisoning through the oral route. CONCLUSION: Poisoning in children between the age of 0 to 5 years was mainly unintentional, while poisoning in children between the age of 13 to 18 years was mainly intentional, where pharmaceutical and household agents were responsible for more than two-thirds of the poisoning cases. Most of these incidents could have been prevented if protective measures, such as child-resistant enclosures, had been implemented and if the parents and guardians had been educated about preventive measures, such as keeping poisoning agents out of the reach of children.

Evaluation of types of poisoning exposure calls managed by the Malaysia National Poison Centre (2006-2015): A retrospective review.

OBJECTIVE: Accidental or intentional poisoning is a public health concern requiring intervention. The current study designs to evaluate the types of poisoning exposure calls received by the Malaysia National Poison Centre (NPC) over a 10-year period. SETTINGS AND DATA SOURCES: The poisoning enquiries database (2006-2015) from the Malaysia NPC was used for the analysis. PARTICIPANTS: The NPC records all telephone calls that it manages using a validated and standardised form. Demographics and types of the poisoning exposure calls were extracted and descriptive analysis was applied. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOMES: The primary outcome of this study is to evaluate NPC data for trends in the poisoning exposure calls based on the types and modes of poisoning over a 10-year period. The secondary outcome is to evaluate the characteristics of human exposure cases based on the calls received by the NPC. RESULTS: There was a notable increase in the number of poisoning exposure calls noticed during the 10-year period but dropped significantly in 2012. The highest number of poisoning exposure calls came from Selangor (21.0%), Perak (18.0%) and Negeri Sembilan (9.8%). More than half of the exposure was intentional (53.8%) involving more women (50.3%) as compared with men (41.9%), and in the 20-29 years age group category (33.5%). Exposure mostly occurred at home (96%) through the ingestion route (94.1%). Pharmaceutical products (40.5%), pesticides (31.7%) and household products (20.1%) were the common agents implicated for intentional exposure. CONCLUSIONS: There is an increasing trend in enquiries on poisoning exposure calls made to the NPC. Most of the intentional poisoning exposures occurred among younger women and involved pharmaceuticals, pesticides or household products. Poisoning safety education and other interventions are needed to curb poisoning incidents.