Citation

Matthews BL, Andrew E, Andronaco R, Cox S, Smith K. Int. J. Inj. Control Safe. Promot. 2017; 24(3): 303-310.

Affiliation

Emergency Medicine Department , University of Western Australia , Perth , Australia.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/17457300.2016.1175479

PMID

27165724

Abstract

Drowning is a major cause of injury and death worldwide. This study aims to expand the evidence in fatal and non-fatal drowning. A retrospective study was conducted to investigate fatal and non-fatal drowning incidents attended by ambulance paramedics in Victoria (Australia) from 2007 to 2012. A total of 509 drowning incidents were identified, 339 (66.6%) were non-fatal, with 170 (33.4%) resulting in death. Children aged 0-4 years had the highest crude drowning rate (7.95 per 100,000 persons). Non-fatal incidents were more likely to be witnessed by a bystander when compared with fatal incidents (43.7% vs. 20.0%, p < 0.001). Spatial analysis indicated that 35 (43.8%) local government areas (LGAs) were considered at 'excess risk' of a drowning event occurring. This study is the first to apply spatial analysis to determine relative risk ratios for fatal and non-fatal drowning. These findings will enable geographically targeted and age-specific drowning prevention activities.

Language: en