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Unsafe storage of household medicines: results from a cross-sectional study of four-year-olds from the 2004 Pelotas birth cohort (Brazil)

BACKGROUND: Unintentional child poisoning represents a significant public health problem across the globe, placing a substantial burden on health services emergency departments. Around the world, every year, thousands of children die as a result of physical injuries, most of which involve children u...

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Autores principales: Santos, Delba Fonseca, Silveira, Marysabel Pinto Telis, Camargo, Aline Lins, Matijasevich, Alicia, Santos, Iná Silva, Barros, Aluísio J. D., Bertoldi, Andréa Dâmaso
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6639903/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31319811
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12887-019-1597-1
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author Santos, Delba Fonseca
Silveira, Marysabel Pinto Telis
Camargo, Aline Lins
Matijasevich, Alicia
Santos, Iná Silva
Barros, Aluísio J. D.
Bertoldi, Andréa Dâmaso
author_facet Santos, Delba Fonseca
Silveira, Marysabel Pinto Telis
Camargo, Aline Lins
Matijasevich, Alicia
Santos, Iná Silva
Barros, Aluísio J. D.
Bertoldi, Andréa Dâmaso
author_sort Santos, Delba Fonseca
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Unintentional child poisoning represents a significant public health problem across the globe, placing a substantial burden on health services emergency departments. Around the world, every year, thousands of children die as a result of physical injuries, most of which involve children under 5 years old. Medicines are the main products involved in poisoning, and children under 5 years old are the most vulnerable age group. The objective of this study was to measure the prevalence of unsafe storage of medicines in households with a 4-year-old child. METHODS: We used data from the follow-up of 4-year-old in the 2004 Pelotas Birth Cohort Study in Brazil (N = 3799). “Unsafe storage” was considered present when medicines were stored unlocked and within reach of children (at a height below the eye level of the average adult). Independent variables included maternal and family socioeconomic and demographic characteristics and the child’s health care. All information was collected during household interviews with the mothers using a standardized questionnaire. The overall prevalence rate with a 95% confidence interval (95% CI) and the prevalence associated with various independent variables were determined. RESULTS: The storage of medicines in unlocked areas was reported by 80.9% of the mothers, and, within reach of children for 26.5%. The overall prevalence rate of unsafe storage of medicines was 21.4% (20.1–22.7%). The main storage locations used were the kitchen (57.0%) and bedroom (53.3%). CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that medicines were unsafely stored in a 21.4% number of homes, which can contribute to the vulnerability of children to poisoning from medicines. To minimize this risk, education about the safe storage of medicines should be reinforced by health professionals.
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spelling pubmed-66399032019-07-29 Unsafe storage of household medicines: results from a cross-sectional study of four-year-olds from the 2004 Pelotas birth cohort (Brazil) Santos, Delba Fonseca Silveira, Marysabel Pinto Telis Camargo, Aline Lins Matijasevich, Alicia Santos, Iná Silva Barros, Aluísio J. D. Bertoldi, Andréa Dâmaso BMC Pediatr Research Article BACKGROUND: Unintentional child poisoning represents a significant public health problem across the globe, placing a substantial burden on health services emergency departments. Around the world, every year, thousands of children die as a result of physical injuries, most of which involve children under 5 years old. Medicines are the main products involved in poisoning, and children under 5 years old are the most vulnerable age group. The objective of this study was to measure the prevalence of unsafe storage of medicines in households with a 4-year-old child. METHODS: We used data from the follow-up of 4-year-old in the 2004 Pelotas Birth Cohort Study in Brazil (N = 3799). “Unsafe storage” was considered present when medicines were stored unlocked and within reach of children (at a height below the eye level of the average adult). Independent variables included maternal and family socioeconomic and demographic characteristics and the child’s health care. All information was collected during household interviews with the mothers using a standardized questionnaire. The overall prevalence rate with a 95% confidence interval (95% CI) and the prevalence associated with various independent variables were determined. RESULTS: The storage of medicines in unlocked areas was reported by 80.9% of the mothers, and, within reach of children for 26.5%. The overall prevalence rate of unsafe storage of medicines was 21.4% (20.1–22.7%). The main storage locations used were the kitchen (57.0%) and bedroom (53.3%). CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that medicines were unsafely stored in a 21.4% number of homes, which can contribute to the vulnerability of children to poisoning from medicines. To minimize this risk, education about the safe storage of medicines should be reinforced by health professionals. BioMed Central 2019-07-12 /pmc/articles/PMC6639903/ /pubmed/31319811 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12887-019-1597-1 Text en © The Author(s). 2019 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Santos, Delba Fonseca
Silveira, Marysabel Pinto Telis
Camargo, Aline Lins
Matijasevich, Alicia
Santos, Iná Silva
Barros, Aluísio J. D.
Bertoldi, Andréa Dâmaso
Unsafe storage of household medicines: results from a cross-sectional study of four-year-olds from the 2004 Pelotas birth cohort (Brazil)
title Unsafe storage of household medicines: results from a cross-sectional study of four-year-olds from the 2004 Pelotas birth cohort (Brazil)
title_full Unsafe storage of household medicines: results from a cross-sectional study of four-year-olds from the 2004 Pelotas birth cohort (Brazil)
title_fullStr Unsafe storage of household medicines: results from a cross-sectional study of four-year-olds from the 2004 Pelotas birth cohort (Brazil)
title_full_unstemmed Unsafe storage of household medicines: results from a cross-sectional study of four-year-olds from the 2004 Pelotas birth cohort (Brazil)
title_short Unsafe storage of household medicines: results from a cross-sectional study of four-year-olds from the 2004 Pelotas birth cohort (Brazil)
title_sort unsafe storage of household medicines: results from a cross-sectional study of four-year-olds from the 2004 pelotas birth cohort (brazil)
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6639903/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31319811
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12887-019-1597-1
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