Surveillance of Poisoning and Drug Overdose Through Hospital Discharge Coding, Poison Control Center Reporting, and the Drug Abuse Warning Network

The authors compared 4 measures of poisoning incidence by studying a case series at 2 urban hospitals. In multiple logistic regression, factors of age, hospital admission, suicidal intent, principal poisoning or overdose type, & mixed drug overdose were statistically significnat predictors of case match or report varying by surveillance measure. Findings indicate that common surveillance measures of poisoning & drug overdose may systematically undercount morbidity. (17 refs.)