Fatal and non-fatal drowning is a significant public health issue, which disproportionately impacts children and young people. In Australia, the highest fatal and non-fatal drowning rates occur in children under five years of age. To date, little qualitative research has been conducted on non-fatal drowning, with causal factor analysis generally conducted using coronial and hospital data. This study's aim was to identify causal factors in hospital treated cases of non-fatal drowning in children as qualitatively self-reported by parents and caregivers. Cases of unintentional child (0-16 years) non-fatal drowning admissions and Emergency Department presentations to three tertiary care paediatric hospitals in New South Wales, Australia were identified via International Classification of Diseases (ICD) coding. Parents and caregivers of drowning patients were invited to participate in a semi-structured interview. Data were thematically coded using an inductive approach, with a focus on causal factors and recommendations for preventive approaches. Of 169 incidents, 86 parents/caregivers were interviewed. Children hospitalised for drowning were more often male (59.3%), aged 0-4 years (79.1%) and 30.2% were from household who spoke a language other than English. Qualitative incident descriptions were coded to five themes: lapse of supervision, unintended access (commonly in home swimming pools), brief immersion (usually young children bathing), falls into water and ongoing impacts. Drowning prevention recommendations were grouped under supervision, pool barriers and maintenance, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training and emergency response, drowning is quick and silent, and learning swimming. Parents and caregivers of young children require ongoing education regarding supervision distractions and pool barrier compliance. Additional challenges are faced by those in rental properties with pools, parents/caregivers who cannot swim, and parents/caregivers from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Affordable, accessible, and culturally appropriate swimming lessons, water safety education and CPR training should be made more available for adult caregivers, particularly in languages other than English.
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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9683605 | PMC |
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0276374 | PLOS |
BMC Med Res Methodol
January 2025
Prehospital Center Region Zealand, Ringstedgade 61, 14th Floor, Naestved, 4700, Denmark.
Background: Effective interventions to reduce drowning incidents require accurate and reliable data for scientific analysis. However, the lack of high-quality evidence and the variability in drowning terminology, definitions, and outcomes present significant challenges in assessing studies to inform drowning guidelines. Many drowning reports use inappropriate classifications for drowning incidents, which significantly contributes to the underreporting of drowning.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAust N Z J Public Health
January 2025
School of Population Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of New South Wales, Kensington, NSW, Australia; College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, Australia. Electronic address:
Objective: To quantify drowning rates and fatal to non-fatal drowning ratios on public holidays, school holidays, weekdays and long weekends in New South Wales from January 2010 to June 2022.
Methods: Using a linked administrative dataset comprising ambulance (paper-based and electronic records), emergency department presentations and death registry, rates of drowning and ratios of fatal to non-fatal drowning were calculated.
Results: Across 4,161 total drowning incidents, public holidays (14.
West J Emerg Med
September 2024
University of California Irvine School of Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine, Irvine, California.
Resusc Plus
December 2024
Hartford Hospital, 80 Seymour St, Hartford, CT 06102, United States.
Introduction: Paediatric drowning is an injury associated with significant morbidity and mortality.
Objective: The objective is to describe drowning trends, including associations with inpatient hospitalisation or fatality, in a state-wide paediatric cohort to inform prevention strategies.
Methods: In this retrospective cohort study using the Health Services Cost Review Commission database, we used International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes to identify patients aged 0-19 years with an outpatient (including emergency department) or inpatient medical encounter following a non-fatal or fatal drowning event between 2016 and 2019.
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