Four-sided, non-climbable pool fencing is an effective strategy for preventing children from drowning in home swimming pools. In 2009, the Queensland Government introduced legislation to improve the effectiveness of pool fencing. This study explores community attitudes towards the effectiveness of these legislative changes and examines child (<5 years) drowning deaths in pools. Data from the 20...

Drowning is an important cause of preventable injury and mortality, ranking fifth among leading causes of unintentional injury death in the United States. In 2011, two healthy young men died in a drowning incident at a New York City (NYC)-regulated swimming facility. The men became unconscious underwater after performing intentional hyperventilation before submersion. The phenomenon of healthy ...

INTRODUCTION Drowning is a leading cause of unintentional death. Rivers are a common location for drowning. Unlike other location-specific prevention efforts (home swimming pools and beaches), little is known about prevention targeting river drowning deaths. METHODS A systematic literature review was undertaken using English language papers published between 1980 and 2014, exploring gaps in t...

This issue of the Bulletin features an article on a new definition of “drowning” (1). Most of the time we intuitively know what drowning is until someone asks us explicitly to define it. In scientific research, meaningful definitions are essential for comparability and reproducibility. Drowning has been listed as the second leading cause of death from unintentional injury in WHO reports, after ...

BACKGROUND Bystanders make a critical difference in the survival of drowning victims. Little information on their role before arrival of the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) is available in the scientific literature. In a descriptive study, this role is investigated. METHODS AND RESULTS We studied 289 rescue reports (1999-2004) available from the Dutch Maatschappij tot Redding van Drenkelinge...

AIMS To investigate the problem of children drowning in bath seats by examining case reports, by looking at the epidemiology of bath drowning in children under two years of age and by reviewing the literature. METHODS We describe two babies: one who drowned and one nearly drowned in the bath whilst in a bath seat. We examined the RoSPA/RLSS UK database of cases of children under two years dro...

Swimming can be an important source of physical activity across the life-span. Researchers have found that parents influence physical activity behaviors of their children. The purpose of this study was to determine what parental factors influenced the number of days that children swam. Survey respondents (n=1,909) from six cities across the United States were surveyed at local YMCAs. Children w...