Etiologic and demographic characteristics of poisoning: A prospective hospital-based study in Oman

Background: The health care system in Oman is characterized by its rapid de velopment and free medical services for all its nationals although traditio nal medicine still plays a major role in daily life. Epidemiological data o il poisoning are scanty. Objective: To determine the annual rate of poisoni ng-related Accident & Emergency Department visits at Sultan Qaboos Universi ty Hospital in Oman and to evaluate, in both children and adults, the etiol ogic and demographic characteristics of poisoning cases. The poisoning patt ern is contrasted to that of other countries. Methods: A prospective observ ational study included all symptomatic and asymptomatic poisoning-related A ccident & Emergency Department visits over 4 years (1996-1999). Data were r ecorded on a specific-ally designed poison reporting form. Results: Two hun dred and four poisoning-related Accident & Emergency Department visits were recorded corresponding to an average annual rate of 1.8/1000 Accident & Em ergency Department visits. Therapeutic agents were most commonly involved ( 50% of all cases). Accidental poisoning in toddlers was most commonly cause d by drugs. Intentional poisoning in adults involved mainly therapeutic age nts (50%), particularly analgesics, followed by industrial and environmenta l agents (25%). Animal poisoning (14%) was most commonly encountered in adu lt males. Traditional remedies constituted 7% of all poisoning cases. A tot al of 148 patients (73%) were admitted for I to 175 days. Conclusions: Comp ared to studies performed in urban hospitals in other countries, (1) the an nual rate of poisoning-related Accident & Emergency Department visits was s ubstantially lower, (2) psychoactive drugs were less frequently incriminate d in intentional ingestions, and (3) we,found a significantly higher freque ncy of poisoning by animals and traditional remedies than reported by urban hospitals in other Middle Eastern countries. The limitations of our study (Accident & Emergency Department-based data collection in an urban hospital ) do not permit extrapolation to the rest of the country.