Citation

Buendía JA, Restrepo Chavarriaga GJ, Zuluaga AF. BMC Public Health 2020; 20(1): e404.

Affiliation

CIEMTO [drug and poison research and information center] at Integrated Laboratory of Specialized Medicine (LIME), Facultad de Medicina-IPS Universitaria, Universidad de Antioquia, Calle 64 #51-31, 050010, Medellin, Colombia.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group - BMC)

DOI

10.1186/s12889-020-08510-1

PMID

32220225

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Paraquat self-poisonings constitute a significant contributor to the global burden of suicide. Our aim was to evaluate the relationship between social and economic variables with the incidence of self-poisoning with Paraquat in the northeast of Colombia.

METHODS: Records of 154 cases of self-poisoning with Paraquat and several socio-economic variables of six regions of northeast of Colombia were analyzed.

RESULTS: Most of the cases were mestizos, farmworkers, between 20 and 29 years, with intentional exposure using the oral route. Multivariate analyses revealed significant associations among the incidence of self-poisoning with PQ with the ecological factors such as poverty greater than 30% (IRR 15.9 IC95% 5.56-44.72), land Gini index < 0.7 (IRR 7.11 IC95% 3.58-14.12), private health insurance < 40% (IRR 3.39 IC95% 1.30-8.82) and planted area > 10% (IRR 2.47 IC95% 1.60-3.80).

CONCLUSION: There is a relationship between ecological factors and, as such, this study opens the way to further developments in the field.

Language: en

Keywords

Colombia; Paraquat; Poisoning; Socioeconomic factors