An Epidemiological Study of Poisoning: A Follow-up Study from a Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

Background: As per systematic review and meta analysis, 63% of poisoning in India were due to pesticides from 2010 to 2020. Poisoning can be suicidal, homicidal, or accidental. The morbidity or complications caused by poisoning is still a major public health problem in India. Aim: Therefore, this study aimed to assess the epidemiological profile of different types of poison consumed, factors associated, and outcomes of poisoning among the victims. Subjects and Methods: It was a follow-up study conducted for 6 months (September 2022 to February 2023) among 315 victims reported to tertiary care hospital in Jabalpur. Data collection was done by interview technique using a pretested self-structured questionnaire consisting of sociodemographic profile of the victim, information regarding poison and poisoning, duration of stay in the hospital, and outcome. Data entered in MS-Excel, descriptive and inferential statistical analysis was performed by IBM-SPSS 23.0. Results: In this study, it was observed that among 315 victims, the maximum belonged to the age group of 21–45 years (66.67%), with male predominance (65.71%) with the majority of poisoning was due to pesticides (48.57%), followed by tablets overdose (17.78%), then by Insecticides (12.06%) and Rodenticides (10.16%). It was noted that a maximum of the victims had a suicidal (74.29%) mode of poisoning, followed by accidental (13.97%), then homicidal (7.30%), followed by stupefaction (4.44%). Conclusion: In this study, it was observed that the majority of victims had a suicidal tendency to poison with pesticides, with the majority staying within 3–5 days in the hospital with maximum recovery.