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Abstract
Unintentional childhood poisoning is an important public health issue. Children aged 0-4 years are often analysed together as a group for unintentional poisoning risk for statistical purposes. However, these children are quite different in terms of their physical, cognitive and self-regulatory abilities. This thesis examines the contribution of child development to poisoning risk
Three population-based epidemiology studies were conducted that used age as a proxy for development and controlled for other variables that might be contributing to a young child's poisoning risk. The findings of the three age pattern studies demonstrated strong support for the contribution of child development to poisoning events. Children aged 1-3 years had the highest level of risk in all three studies and the age patterns remained stable when analysed over time and by sex, socio-economic status and remoteness of residence. These findings warranted further investigation of child development as a risk factor for unintentional poisoning in children aged 1-3 years.
A case-control study was designed to investigate child development and other potential risk factors for unintentional poisoning. It employed three control groups, injured, sick and healthy, to indentify risk factors specific to unintentional poisoning. Both questionnaire and observational measures were used to assess the factors.
The importance of age and the role of development in unintentional poisoning risk were highlighted by the findings of the risk factor study. Several variables were identified as contributors to poisoning events which also may reflect a younger poisoning group. The study indicated that maternal use of more positive control, accessible poison storage locations and less parenting stress all contributed to unintentional poisoning. Less close supervision was also identified as a risk factor, indicating that proximity of supervision may be important for poison prevention.
The findings of these four studies demonstrated that development plays a major role in unintentional poisoning risk for children aged 1-3 years. Taken together, information regarding age patterns and risk factors for unintentional poisoning in young children may help target prevention measures and identify areas warranting further research.