Ten-year disease burden of acute poisonings in northeast Iran and estimations for national rates

Abstract

Background: Acute poisoning is a common health problem worldwide. Traditionally, the frequency of admitted cases, number of deaths or online resources were used to measure the volume of this problem. In this study, the burden of acute poisoning is addressed for the first time. Methods: Data related to 44,340 poisoned patients from 2004 to 2013 were analysed. Two sources including hospital information and forensic medicine data of the Khorasan Razavi catchment area. The disability-adjusted life years (DALY) method – including years of life lost (YLL) and years lived with disability (YLD) – was used to estimate the burden. Results: In this period and for all acute poisonings, the mean (SD, minimum–maximum) incidence of acute poisoning was 30,485 (3049 per year). In total, 29,208 DALY were lost, including 8499 YLD and 20,709 YLL. DALY have increased from 1808 in 2004 to 4283 in 2013. Among the total DALY over this 10-year period, 17,592 (60%) were related to males. Narcotic use accounted for the largest percentage of DALY (19.6%), followed by analgesics–sedative use (16.3%) and illegal drug use (11.41%). The health loss due to these causes was large (YLD = 8499 and YLL = 20,709) and showed a rapidly increasing trend. Conclusions: Estimating DALY is more informative than using the frequency of death. If we expect the same ratio in the country, we would expect a DALY rate of 729,750 years for the 75,000,000 inhabitants of this country in this time period or 72,975 DALY lost per year for poisonings.