Demographic evaluation of patients with drug poisoning before and during the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the epidemiological profile of acute poisonings due to social changes related to preventive measures to protect against SARS-CoV-2. The purpose of this study is to compare the changes in the demographic characteristics of drug poisoning before and during the covid-19 pandemic. Methods: This study is a cross-sectional descriptive study that was conducted in the field. All the patients who complained of drug poisoning during 2018 and 2019 went to the emergency room of Sinai hospital as a poisoning center and Imam Khomeini (RA) hospital in Benab as one of the big cities of the province and were included in the study. Then, patient data were extracted in 2018, the year without covid-19, and 2019, the year of covid-19 pandemic, and these data included age, sex, type of substance or medicine consumed, the length of hospital stay of the patient, and the outcome of the patient. . Results: In this study, 2785 patients were included in the study, which does not follow the normal distribution (pv<0.001), based on this, the average age of the patients was 33.04 ± 15.77 years, with a median of 30 years and an interquartile range of 21 to 41. It was a year. Among these patients, 1959 patients from Tabriz and 830 patients from Benab were included in the study. The highest number of visits was in 2019 and then in 2018 and the lowest was in 2011. In Benab, there was no significant difference in the average age of patients between years (pv=0.999), comparing the gender difference before and after the outbreak of Corona and between years, there was no significant difference (pv=0.626) when comparing the type of consumption and medicine There was a significant difference (pv<0.001) leading to poisoning between the years before covid-19 and after its outbreak. In Tabriz, there was no significant difference in the average age of the patients between the years (pv=0.181) comparing the gender difference before and There was no significant difference after the outbreak of Corona and between the years (pv=0.432). There was a significant difference between the years before and after the outbreak of covid-19 (pv<0.001).