Epidemiological Trends of Acute Chemical Poisoning among Children over a Recent Three-Year Period in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Acute intoxication from chemicals is a major medical emergency that can result in illness and mortality. This retrospective study aims to evaluate acute chemical poisoning incidents among children in Saudi Arabia from 2019 to 2021. A total of 3009 children were recorded as being chemically intoxicated. The SPSS/PC statistics package was used for the statistical analysis. The acute chemical poisoning incidents that occurred in the age groups were <1 year: 237 (7.8%), 1-5 years: 2301 (76.4%), 6-12 years: 214 (7.1%), and 13-19 years: 257 (8.5%). The mean rate of acute chemical poisoning in the northern region was 40.1%. The most common poisonous agents were organic solvents (20.4%) and disinfection agents (22.7%). Interestingly, there is a significant relationship between the different types of acute chemical poisoning and various factors, including gender, age, the location where acute chemical intoxication occurred, the type of exposure, and whether these were intentional or unintentional events. The data suggest that the northern region of Saudi Arabia has had the highest number of recorded incidents of acute chemical poisoning over the last three years (2019-2021). Individuals between 1-5 years old were the worst hit. Organic solvents and detergents were to blame for the acute unintentional chemical poisonings that took place in homes. Therefore, educating the public about chemical poisoning and reducing children's exposure to toxic chemicals requires educational programs, which may help to reduce chemical poisoning occurrence.

Keywords: acute chemical intoxications; children; epidemiology; intentional poisoning; unintentional poisoning.

Figure 1

The frequency of acute chemical intoxication cases from 2019 to 2021 in the five regions of Saudi Arabia. Statistical analysis was performed using a one-way ANOVA followed by a posthoc Tukey’s multiple comparison test to identify which data groups were significantly different. ** p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001. (A) The frequency of acute chemical poisoning cases in three years period individually. (B) The mean of total acute chemical poisoning frequencies from 2019 to 2021.

Figure 2

Signs and symptoms, medical interventions, and the outcomes of patients postacute chemical poisoning reported cases from 2019 to 2021 within this study. The frequency of signs and symptoms (A), medical interventions (B), the outcomes of patients (C) postacute chemical poisoning reported cases from 2019 to 2021 within this study.