How Did Deaths Outside Hospitals Change Oslo’s Poisoning Picture?

Hospital records describe the people who reach a hospital. To understand deaths across a city, a surveillance study also needs records of people who die outside that setting.

What the Oslo study counted

During a one-year period in 2008–09, the researchers counted 1,065 acute-poisoning admissions involving 912 people. They separately collected information on fatal poisonings both in and outside hospitals. Of 117 poisoning deaths identified in Oslo, eight occurred in hospital. Opioids were the most frequent cause among the fatal cases, while ethanol was the most frequent main agent among admissions.

Match the denominator to the question

The reported in-hospital mortality of 0.8% applies to hospital admissions. The count of 117 describes a broader set of fatal events, most of which hospital surveillance would miss. When comparing poisoning reports, identify whether the dataset counts encounters, individuals or deaths and which settings it includes. The historical Oslo figures describe that study period.

Source

One-year multicenter study of acute poisonings in Oslo (full text) · DOI