Minimum data set development for a drug poisoning registry system

OBJECTIVE: Drug poisoning is the most prevalent type of poisoning throughout the world that can occur intentional or unintentional. Standard way for data gathering with uniform definitions is a requirement for preventing, controlling and managing of drug poisoning management. The purpose of this study was to develop a minimum data set, as an initial step, for a drug poisoning registry system in Iran. METHODS: This was descriptive and cross-sectional study that was performed in 2019. As the first step a comprehensive literature review was performed to retrieve related resources in Persian and English languages. For the second step the medical records of drug poisoning patients at Afzalipour hospital affiliated to Kerman University of Medical Sciences were assessed. Related data from these two steps were gathered by a checklist. Finally, a questionnaire that was created based on the checklist data elements and had three columns of ‘essential,' ‘useful, but not essential', and ‘not essential' was used to reach a consensus on the data elements. Then the content validity ratio and the mean of experts’ judgments were calculated for each data element. The Cronbach’s alpha value for the entire questionnaire was obtained 0.9. RESULTS: The minimum data set of a drug poisoning registry system was categorised into the administrative part with three sections including 32 data elements, and clinical parts with six sections including 81 data elements. CONCLUSION: This study provides a minimum data set for development of a drug poisoning registry system. Collecting this minimum data set is critical for helping policy makers and healthcare providers to prevent, control and manage drug poisoning.