Intoxication-related deaths in a poisoning center in Isfahan: Demographic and other-related factors

The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency of poisoning mortality in the 5‑year period of 2014–2019 in Isfahan Khorshid Hospital, Iran.

This study is a cross‑sectional descriptive analytical study, which was performed in 2020. The demographic and clinical data about the patients were extracted from the patients’ files and were then analyzed.

The number of deaths due to poisoning in the study period was 264, and the mean age of the deceased was 42.33 ± 20.097. One hundred and ninety‑three (73.1%) patients were male. The frequency of deaths in the poisoning ward was 0.84%. The causes of death were accidental overdose (73, 26.9%), suicide (155, 63.2%), accidental use (18, 7.3%), and homicide in one patient. The mean age, time between exposure of toxin until death and history of addiction, substance use, and suicide in men patients was significantly higher than women (P < 0.05), however, such significant results were observed in married when compared with single patients. The differences between the two genders based on the type of toxic substance were statistically significant (P < 0.001). The most common causes of death were pesticides poisoning (n = 121), especially paraquat (n = 48) and Aluminum phosphide (n = 45), and multidrug poisoning (n = 48).

In this study, we showed that the death rate due to poisoning in our center was lower than other centers. The highest number of poisoning was in men as well as married patients. It is also recommended that more serious educational and preventive strategies should be used in this regard.