[The study of poisoning-suicide-attempted patients in emergency departments of 25 hospitals in China].
OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to develop an estimate of the actuality and characteristics of poisoning suicide attempted patients in emergency department (ED) in China.


METHODS
We selected 25 hospital EDs in whole country as the investigation spots, and designed one special questionnaire to collect information from the poisoning suicide attempted patients from 1st July, 2001 to 30th June, 2002.


RESULTS
Results were based on 4060 cases hospitalized during the investigating period. In general frequency analysis, the ratio of male to female was 1:2.95. In all patients, 98.40% cases took poisons orally, and 93.57% cases occurred at home. The average age was 31.5 years old (min 8, max 93). The leading occupations of cases were farmers, unemployed house-wives, jobless, service people and students. The main types of poisons were druggery (54.29%) and pesticide (35.84%). 2044 cases (59.23%) were cured timely (in 1 hour). When comparing cases from rural hospitals (RHs) and urban hospitals (UHs): ratio of poisoning attempted suicides in RHs to all poisoning cases was higher than UHs with significant gender difference (P < 0.05). UHs number one cause of poisoning was druggery, but in RHs it was pesticide.


CONCLUSIONS
Poisoning attempted suicide was very serious in China. Farmers and women were among the high-risk groups. Druggery and pesticide were the primary poisons, suggesting that management enforcement was in urgent need.
Li
Zhong-jie
ZJ
Center for Public Health Surveillance and Information Service, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100050, China.
Chen
Shu-yang
SY
Zhou
Jing
J
Wu
Yi-qun
YQ
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006761:Hospitals / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009790:Occupations; D011041:Poisoning / Q000145:classification / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012737:Sex Factors; D013406:Suicide, Attempted / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome