Citation

Ma WJ, Nie SP, Xu HF, Xu YJ, Song XL, Guo QZ, Zhang YR. BMC Public Health 2010; 10(1): 156.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group - BMC)

DOI

10.1186/1471-2458-10-156

PMID

20334694

PMCID

PMC2851686

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Drowning is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in childhood, yet nonfatal drowning remains poorly understood. The aim of the study was to identify potential modifiable risk factors of non-fatal drowning among children in rural areas of China. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was first conducted to obtain nonfatal drowning cases, and 7432 students in grades three to eight from 17 schools participated in the cross sectional survey. Of these, 805 students reported that they experienced nonfatal drowning in the previous year. Then 368 were selected randomly to participate in the case-control study. Each drowning case was matched by one control with the same sex and similar age (the gap less than 2 years) who was selected randomly from the same class. RESULTS: Boys were more likely to be involved in nonfatal drowning. Non-fatal drowning most often happened in the afternoon (65.1%) and natural bodies of water were the most common sites(71.1%). Swimming, diving and playing in natural waters were the leading activities that preceded non-fatal drowning. The significant risk factors for non-fatal drowning were swimming in natural waters without adult supervision (OR=3.40, 95% CI: 1.92-6.03), playing in or beside natural waters (OR=2.08, 95% CI: 1.17-3.70) and poor swimming skills (OR=2.74, 95% CI: 1.14-6.62). However, the following variables were protective factors: supervisor aged 30 years or over (OR=0.20, 95% CI: 0.09-0.49) and no water activities (OR=0.36, 95% CI: 0.18-0.70). CONCLUSIONS: The reduction in dangerous water activities, swimming training and enhancement in supervision among children might decrease the risk of nonfatal drowning.

Language: en