TY - JOUR PY - 2005// TI - Characteristics of poisoning mortality between 1986-2001 in the autonomous Basque community, Spain JO - Revista española de salud pública A1 - Appellaniz, Alfonso A1 - Manzanaro, Ricardo SP - 569 EP - 579 VL - 79 IS - 5 N2 - BACKGROUND: Acute drug-related deaths are frequent, giving rise to high Potential Years of Life Lost figures. The objectives of this research are to ascertain the trend in the acute drug-related death rate in the Autonomous Basque Community and the variance thereof in terms of different variables. METHOD: The drug-related death rate data from the Autonomous Basque Community's Death Register for the 1986-2001 period was analyzed overall in terms of different demographic variables and by cause of death (ICD-9 and ICD-10). The analysis includes gross death rates and standardized rates by European population. The potential years of life lost are calculated. RESULTS: Acute drug-related deaths numbering 1,207 in all were recorded during the period under study, totaling 045% of all deaths, for a gross rate of 3.58 deaths/100,000 inhabitants. The mean Potential Years of Life Lost were 2,226.33/year, for a rate of 1.12/1000. A total of 75.97% of these deaths were males, the average age at time of death having been 40.29 years (36.09 for males and 52.64 for females). The etiology most often involved was: accidental (82.19%), followed by intentional (12.43%) and undetermined (5.38%)-. Accidental poisoning by other drugs (E-850 in ICD-9, X44 in ICD-10) was the leading cause of death (42.30% and 34.75% respectively). CONCLUSIONS: There has been an increase in the number of acute drug-related deaths throughout the period studied, the accidental prescribed drug overdose being the main cause, entailing statistically significant differences by sex and age. LA - SN - 1135-5727 UR - http://dx.doi.org/ ID - ref1 ER -