Childhood Poisoning: A study in Thua Thien Hue & Dong Thap provinces in 2006

This study was conducted on the request of UNICEF and the Vietnam Administration of Preventive Medicine within the context of the UNICEF-MOH program on childhood injury prevention (CIP). The study aimed to identify the routine information system of childhood poisoning, to describe the circumstances of childhood poisoning, to identify the poisoning risks, common factors associated with childhood poisoning, and to provide recommendations for effective prevention of childhood poisoning. It was carried out by a local independent research institution (RTCCD) in two provinces of Thua Thien Hue and Dong Thap from November 2006 to January 2007. In data collection, the team used the two steps approach:

• Child poisoning survey at the public routine information system: Four provincial and regional hospitals located in the two provinces, together with two district hospitals in each province were visited by the team for collecting list of child poisoning cases during the last 3 years. From the lists, a sample of 56 cases which met the ICD-10 definition of child poisoning and happened during the previous 6-12 months were selected for the community case study in step two. In addition, an assessment of the public health provincial information system including both curative and preventive statistics for monitoring child poisoning was also conducted in this step.
• Community child poisoning investigation: From 56 cases selected from the hospitals, field study was conducted to interview parents or child caregivers about the causes and circumstances of poisoning happened. Other child poisoning cases similar to the index cases were explored to identify the magnitude of childhood poisoning at the community. 10 community group discussions were organized to collect the recommendations for childhood poisoning prevention.