Overview of drug poisoning in early childhood in Colombia (2019-2024): A Secondary Data Analysis

Objective: Drug poisoning in the pediatric population continues to be a preventable public health problem, especially in early childhood, given the greater vulnerability to accidental exposure to medications. However, systematic analyses of this population in Colombia have been limited to date. This study aims to analyze the trend in reports of drug poisoning in children under 5 years of age registered with Cisproquim® between 2019 and 2024. Methods: Secondary analysis based on anonymized databases provided by Cisproquim® for the period 2019-2024. Records for children under 5 years of age were included, and duplicated and incomplete records were excluded. Univariate and bivariate statistical analysis were performed using the ANOVA model. This study is considered risk-free given its characteristics. Results: A total of 4,137 reports were obtained. Most cases occurred in preschool-aged children (47.6%) in 2022 (20.1%). Acetaminophen (14%) administered orally (97.8%) was the most frequent cause, the severity of the events was predominantly mild (50.6%), and most occurred in unintentional circumstances (99.2%). The highest proportion of cases was recorded in urban areas (92.7%) and in level I care institutions (35.2%). Conclusions: This study provides findings that support the need to implement prevention strategies and public policies that limit contact with medications at these ages. Future research is proposed to study the incidence of poisoning in this population in depth.