Characteristics of hospitalized patients due to intentional and unintentional poisoning in Fasa city, 2014-2016

Poisoning is one of the major causes of death in most countries so that acute poisoning is one of the threatening health problems around the world. The aim of this study was to determine the characteristics of hospitalized patients due to intentional and unintentional poisoning in the city of Fasa during the years 2014-2016.
A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 275 poisoned patients who referred to the emergency department of Valiasr Hospital in Fasa for two and a half years. Data were collected by patients’ characteristics questionnaire including age, sex, place, and date of poisoning, intentional or unintentional poisoning, substance abuse, history of suicide attempt, history of drug use, mean hospitalization time and prognosis of patients extracted from patients’ records. The descriptive statistic and SPSS software version 16 were used to analyze the data.
Most of the patients were male (63.28%), single (53.6%), unemployed (65/80%) and age group 36-59 years. 80.40% of poisonings were unintentional by using analgesic and narcotic drugs (44%). Majority of poisoning happened at home (90%) in urban areas (60.40%).63/90% of poisoned patients referred to the medical centers in less than an hour and 75/60% were discharged with complete recovery. There was no report of hospitalization or death in ICU.
According to the findings of this study, the most vulnerable group at risk of poisoning was males, single and unemployed people aged 36- 59 years old due to drug poisoning. Therefore, it is necessary to make public education, especially in middle-aged people, in relation to non-prescription drugs and how they are used.