Poisoning in middle-age women triples

BALTIMORE, Sept. 4 (UPI) -- The mortality rate of unintentional poisoning tripled in U.S. middle-age white women from 1999 to 2005, researchers said.

Study co-author Susan P. Baker of The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Center for Injury Research and Policy said the increase in poisonings is largely due to prescription drugs.

The study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, said white women ages 45-64 experienced a 230 percent increase in the rate of poisoning mortality during the study period. White men in the same age group experienced an increase of 137 percent.

The same study also found mortality rates from falls varied widely by age and gender. The death rate from falls increased 38 percent for white men and 48 percent for white women 65 and older.

"The large increases in the number of deaths attributable to poisoning and falls underscore the need for more research on the specific circumstances involved," Baker said in a statement.

"While we don't know the cause behind the recent increase in falls mortality, it appears that the increase in poisonings is largely due to prescription drugs."

The researchers used data from the National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.