The relationship of poison center contact and injury in children 2 to 6 years old.
OBJECTIVE
To determine if children from households that call a poison center are at increased risk of nonpoisoning injury.


METHODS
A blinded and controlled telephone survey of two groups of households with children between 2 and 6 years old: case households identified by a poison center as having requested information regarding a possible poisoning in a child in this age group in 1989, and control households that did not contact the poison center. The control group was matched by telephone area code and prefix; the last four digits were chosen by random digit dialing.


METHODS
Children from 2 to 6 years old.


RESULTS
One hundred twenty-nine households identified by the poison center and 136 control households completed the telephone interview. The number of children 2 to 6 years old in these households was 190 in the 129 poison control households and 209 in the 136 nonpoison control households. There were 45 injuries among the 190 children in the poison control group and 31 injuries among 209 children in the nonpoison control group. The annual rate of injuries per child was significantly greater in the poison control group (23.7%) than in the nonpoison control group (14.8%) (P less than .025; odds ratio, 1.6; 95% confidence interval, 1.1 to 2.4).


CONCLUSIONS
Children 2 to 6 years old in households that contact a poison center for a possible poison exposure in a child in this age group are at increased risk of injury.
Baraff
L J
LJ
Department of Pediatrics, UCLA School of Medicine.
Guterman
J J
JJ
Bayer
M J
MJ
D015982:Bias; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D011039:Poison Control Centers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011041:Poisoning; D012307:Risk Factors; D016037:Single-Blind Method; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control