Acute Pesticide Poisoning among Children in South Korea: Findings from National Health Insurance Claims Data, 2006-2009

Abstract

Objectives: The aim of this study was to estimate the incidence of acute pesticide poisoning among children in South Korea and describe the related epidemiologic characteristics.

Methods: We evaluated the age-standardized rates of incidence of pesticide poisoning among children in South Korea from 2006 through 2009 using National Health Insurance claims data.

Results: A total of 1232 children aged 0–14 years were identified from the acute pesticide poisoning cases reported across South Korea during the study period. The annual average age-standardized rate of incidence from acute pesticide poisoning was 3.6 per 100 000. The majority of the cases were identified in the categories of the 1–4-year-old age-group (56.5%), outpatients (80.0%), single-day visit to a hospital (70.4%) and summer occurrence (43.3%).

Conclusions: Acute pesticide poisoning is prevalent among children in South Korea; therefore, intervention efforts are needed to reduce the cases of pesticide poisoning among children.