Severity of child neglect among acutely poisoned children in Egypt.

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Child abuse and neglect pose significant public health challenges, contributing to compromised development and adverse health outcomes. Neglect is the most frequent type of child abuse, presenting substantial challenges for paediatricians. To identify types of neglect associated with poisoned children, analyse potential risk factors and develop a novel severity scoring system to assess child neglect in Alexandria, Egypt. Using a simple random sampling technique, with an observational checklist we collected data on children aged 2 months to 17 years admitted for poisoning at the poison centre of Alexandria Main University Hospital from October to December 2022. We analysed the data using SPSS version 20.0 and tested the associations between neglect score and child data, current condition and carer data using the χ2 test, the Monte Carlo simulation and Fisher's exact P. The study enrolled 147 children, male-to-female ratio 1:1.17. Pesticides were the most common cause of poisoning. Lack of supervision was noted in 83% of cases and the neglect severity score showed that 27.9% of the children experienced severe neglect. There was significant association between severity of neglect and caregiver's education level and between severity of neglect and child's residence; severe neglect cases were significantly higher among children whose caregivers had no formal education (70.7%) and among those from rural areas (61%). These findings highlight the critical need to address educational disparities among caregivers and improve supervision for children, especially in rural areas.