Poisoning during the COVID-19 outbreak and lockdown: retrospective analysis of exposures reported to French poison control centres
Gaël Le Roux, Sandra Sinno‐Tellier, Emmanuel Puskarczyk, Magali Labadie, Katharina von Fabeck, Fanny Pélissier, Patrick Nisse, Anne Landreau, French PCC Research Group, Alexis Descatha, Dominique Vodovar
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: The aim was to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on French Poison Control Centre (PCC) call characteristics. METHODS: Reported cases of xenobiotic exposures from 1 March to 30 April in 2018, 2019, and 2020 were extracted from the French National Database of Poisonings. The collected data included call, patient, and exposure characteristics for both general calls and for calls involving sentinel xenobiotic categories related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2020 exposures were compared to 2018-2019 exposures by using simple logistic models in order to provide effect size with odds ratios. RESULTS: < .0001) was observed. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 pandemic altered calls to French PCCs with a small increase in calls during the study period and changes in the pattern of exposure. These changes possibly reflected the indirect consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic i.e., limited access to primary care, fear of contracting COVID-19 and anxiety related to home isolation.